Just two months before President-elect Donald J. Trump is set to take office, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use long-range American weapons to strike deep into Russia.
In September, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that the U.S. allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons like this would effectively mean that the U.S. entering the war.
“Flight assignments for these missile systems can, in fact, only be entered by military personnel from NATO countries. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this,” Putin said. “And therefore, it is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not. It is a question of making a decision whether NATO countries directly participate in the military conflict or not.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller defended the White House’s decision in a press briefing, saying that Biden was “elected to a four year-term, not a term of three years and 10 months.”
“We will use every day of our term to pursue policy interests that we believe are in the interests of the American people,” he said. “If the incoming administration wants to take a different view, that is, of course, their right to do so.”
