President Joe Biden has given permission to Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with American munitions, though he has restricted their use so Kyiv can only hit targets over the border close to Kharkiv after Russia made significant advances around the city in the northeastern part of the country close to the Russian border, two US officials told CNN.
Surely it depends on the definition of “close/near”, have they given detailed specifics or is that not public info?
I mean you could argue that since these aren’t some intercontinental missiles, whatever is in their range, should be considered close?
Alternatively you could say, anything that can hit Kharkiv is fair game which opens it up a bit and not limiting the launchers to be “near” Kharkiv to retaliate.
Edit: seems like most of these articles are just reiterating the vague “close/near” and at most mention that US stance on long-range strikes has not changed.
Yeah, my guess is ‘near’ is being kept intentionally vague by the administration so that it can mean whatever it needs to mean. And, like you said, ‘near’ very well could mean air bases 300km from the front from which aircraft attack said front.
The reason they allowed it near Kharkiv is because Russia has their military stuff parked pretty much out in the open in plain sight on their side of the border knowing full well there’s nothing Ukraine can do about it. They’re doing constant cross-border raids and cheap glide bombs are especially a problem as they can drop them from a high altitude 20km behind the borders without ever entering Ukrainian air space. That is not so much of an issue on the eastern front because the territory where most of the Russians are is already in Ukraine. Same as with Crimea.
Good
Now let’s expand it to the rest of Russia.
Surely it depends on the definition of “close/near”, have they given detailed specifics or is that not public info?
I mean you could argue that since these aren’t some intercontinental missiles, whatever is in their range, should be considered close?
Alternatively you could say, anything that can hit Kharkiv is fair game which opens it up a bit and not limiting the launchers to be “near” Kharkiv to retaliate.
Edit: seems like most of these articles are just reiterating the vague “close/near” and at most mention that US stance on long-range strikes has not changed.
Yeah, my guess is ‘near’ is being kept intentionally vague by the administration so that it can mean whatever it needs to mean. And, like you said, ‘near’ very well could mean air bases 300km from the front from which aircraft attack said front.
The reason they allowed it near Kharkiv is because Russia has their military stuff parked pretty much out in the open in plain sight on their side of the border knowing full well there’s nothing Ukraine can do about it. They’re doing constant cross-border raids and cheap glide bombs are especially a problem as they can drop them from a high altitude 20km behind the borders without ever entering Ukrainian air space. That is not so much of an issue on the eastern front because the territory where most of the Russians are is already in Ukraine. Same as with Crimea.