The Kremlin has accused the West of “entering a new round of escalations of tensions” after US President Joe Biden lifted restrictions on Ukraine using US weapons for direct attacks on Russian territory.
Two US officials confirmed that the US has lifted the restrictions after White House, US military and State Department officials discussed Ukraine’s use of the weapons behind closed doors for weeks.
Ukraine will only be allowed to use the weapons to defend the northeastern Kharkov region, which is currently witnessing a protracted struggle for control of the region.
Russia was outraged by the news of the US decision to launch attacks on the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killing three people and wounding 23 others, including two children.
The U.S., like the rest of the West, has largely resisted Ukraine’s pleas for permission to use Western missiles on Russian targets, fearing it would bring NATO too close to the conflict.
The USS Florida launches a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile (File Image)
Ukrainian soldiers of the 80th brigade fire artillery at Russian positions in the direction of Bakhmut
Russian President Vladimir Putin (photo) speaks during an awards ceremony in the Kremlin
But ahead of a NATO meeting in Prague on Thursday, bloc chief Jens Stoltenberg had repeatedly said it was time for members to reconsider the limits on attacks in Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron had also insisted this week that Ukraine should be allowed to “neutralize” bases in Russia that were used to launch attacks.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has remained cool to the idea, although his country promised Ukraine a new military aid package worth 500 million euros (£426 million) on Thursday.
As the West continues to deliberate the case, Kharkov police warned that residents could still be trapped under the rubble of buildings brought down by the strikes.
“A man and a woman were killed as a result of enemy ammunition hitting a multi-storey residential building… The fourth and fifth floors of one of the parts of the building were completely destroyed,” police said in a statement, adding that a other ammunition killed a guard at a civilian production facility.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze in an apartment building damaged by the Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine
As the West continues to deliberate the case, Kharkov police warned that residents could still be trapped under the rubble of buildings brought down by the strikes.
Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, is located just across the border from Russia’s Belgorod and is regularly attacked by Russian missiles
Regional Governor Oleg Synegubov noted in a Telegram message that an emergency doctor was among the wounded, adding: “The enemy again used a double attack tactic, while medics, rescuers and law enforcement officers were already working on the scene.”
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said there was “not a single soldier, not a single military object” present.
Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, is located just across the border from Belgorod in Russia and is regularly attacked by Russian missiles.
Sixteen people were killed in Russian strikes that hit a hardware supermarket in the city last weekend.
Across the border, in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, an oil depot was damaged by an airstrike, the governor said Friday morning, noting that a major drone incursion elsewhere in the region had been repelled by air defenses.
“The situation is more serious in Temryuk district; the infrastructure of the oil depots was damaged there by an air raid. Three tanks with petroleum products have been damaged and are on fire,” Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram, adding that some workers had been injured.