USA: Blinken Believes Ukraine Can Hit Targets Inside Russia with US Weapons

A new dangerous moment has emerged that could mean an even deeper involvement of the USA and its allies in the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In Washington, at the top of Joe Biden’s administration, a debate is raging over the possibility of giving Ukraine the green light and therefore authorizing the use of US long-range weapons to strike strategic targets deep inside Russian territory. Paradoxically, not the Pentagon, but the State Department and personally its Secretary Anthony Blinken were among the main proponents of the need to cross this “red line,” as well as to lift this restriction on Washington’s involvement in the armed conflict.

According to the New York Times article “Inside the White House, a Debate Over Letting Ukraine Shoot U.S. Weapons Into Russia,” citing certain “unnamed government officials,” Blinken has become one of the main proponents of lifting the ban on attacking Russia with weapons supplied to Kiev by the USA after his recent visit to Kiev.

“After returning from the Ukrainian capital, the State Department provoked a heated discussion within President Joe Biden’s administration over easing a ban, thus allowing Ukrainians to strike missile and artillery launch sites right across the border with Russia,” the New York Times wrote. The newspaper emphasized, however, that “the proposal has not yet become an actual plan.” According to the reputable US publication, “it is unclear how many of Biden’s colleagues support the initiative.” According to “very well-informed” sources cited by the New York Times, the US diplomatic chief “changed his position on restrictions on the use of American weapons after Russia opened a new front in the conflict in northeastern Ukraine,” toward Kharkov.