Nov. 17 (UPI) — President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said “missiles will speak for themselves,” following reports that U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to conduct strikes deeper into Russian territory.
The besieged Eastern European nation has repeatedly increased its requests for assistance from the United States amid its war, with many being granted. However, Ukraine has for months now called on Washington to allow it to strike deeper into Russia with U.S munitions — a request that the Biden administration has been reluctant to grant out of fear of escalating the nearly 1,000-day-old war.
On Sunday, it was reported that U.S. President Joe Biden, who is to leave the White House in two months, has given Zelensky authorization to use Army Tactical Missile Systems, which are long-range missiles, to strike Russia.
“Today, there’s a lot of talk in the media about us receiving permission for respective actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves. They certainly will,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Sunday.
Biden’s authorization of Ukraine to attack further in Russian territory was reported by The New York Times, CNN and ABC News. All three news organizations cited unnamed U.S. officials.
The authorization comes as North Korean troops have entered combat in the Ukraine-Russia war.
The U.S. State Department last week said some 10,000 soldiers of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have been sent to eastern Russia, most to Kursk Oblast, where Ukrainian forces have occupied hundreds of square miles, taken in a surprise August incursion.
With the authorization, Ukraine is expected target Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in Kursk region, officials told The Times, adding that Biden may also allow Kyiv to use them elsewhere in Russia.
The decision to allow the use of longer-range weapons in the war is the latest shift in Ukraine war policy in Washington. It had also turned down Ukrainian requests for Patriot missiles, Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets, only to later acquiesce.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons in the war. In September, amid debates about the use of Ukraine conducting longer-range attacks, he warned that Moscow could respond to conventional missiles with its nuclear arsenal.