The Kremlin has accused the West of ‘entering a new round of escalating tensions’, after US President Joe Biden lifted restrictions on Ukraine using US weapons for direct attacks on Russian soil.
Two US officials confirmed that the United States has lifted restrictions, after officials from the White House, the US military and the State Department spent weeks discussing Ukraine’s use of weapons behind closed doors.
Ukraine will only be allowed to use weapons to defend the northeastern Kharkiv region, which is currently witnessing a protracted fight for control of the region.
Russia was furious at the news of the US decision, launching attacks on the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, that killed three people and injured 23 others, including two children.
The United States, along with the rest of the West, has largely resisted Ukraine’s pleas for permission to use Western missiles against Russian targets, concerned that this 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 firing artillery at Russian positions in the direction of Bakhmut
Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) speaks during an awards ceremony in the Kremlin
But ahead of a NATO meeting in Prague on Thursday, the bloc’s head, Jens Stoltenberg, had repeatedly said it was time for members to reconsider limits on attacks inside Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron had also insisted this week that Ukraine be allowed to “neutralize” bases in Russia 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 €500m (£426m) on Thursday.
As the West deliberates further on the matter, Kharkiv police warned that residents could still be trapped under the rubble of buildings toppled by the attacks.
“A man and a woman died as a result of enemy ammunition hitting a multi-story residential building… The fourth and fifth floors of one of the sections of the building were completely destroyed,” police said in a statement, adding than another A munition killed a guard at a civilian production facility.
Firefighters put out a fire at an apartment building damaged by the Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine
As the West deliberates further on the matter, Kharkiv police warned that residents could still be trapped under the rubble of buildings toppled by the attacks.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, is located just across the border from Belgorod in Russia and regularly comes under Russian missile attacks.
Regional Governor Oleg Synegubov said in a Telegram message that among the wounded was an emergency doctor, adding: “The enemy again used a double attack tactic, while doctors, rescuers and law enforcement officers “They were already working there.”
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said there was “not a single military man or a single military object” present.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, is located just across the border from Belgorod, Russia, and periodically comes under Russian missile attacks.
Russian attacks that hit a hardware hypermarket in the city last weekend killed 16 people.
Across the border in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, an oil depot was damaged in an airstrike, its governor said Friday morning, noting that a major drone raid elsewhere in the region had been repelled by air defenses.
“The situation is more serious in the Temryuk district: the infrastructure of the oil depot was damaged by an airstrike. “Three tanks with oil products were damaged and are on fire,” Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram, adding that some workers were injured.