WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has been quietly blocking Ukraine from using United States-made long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems to strike targets inside Russia.
This restriction limits Kyiv’s ability to employ these weapons in its defence against Moscow’s invasion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
United States officials cited in the report confirmed the policy, which Reuters could not immediately verify.
The news emerged as United States President Donald Trump has grown more frustrated publicly over the three-year-old war.
Trump expressed his inability to secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine despite multiple diplomatic efforts.
After his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a subsequent meeting with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy failed to produce observable progress, Trump said on Friday that he was again considering slapping Russia with economic sanctions.
“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,“ Trump said.
Trump had hoped to arrange a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy, but that has also proven difficult.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC on Friday that there was no agenda in place for a sitdown with Zelenskiy.
“Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskiy when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all,“ Lavrov told NBC, saying no meeting was planned for now.
As the White House sought to persuade Putin to join peace talks, an approval process put in place at the Pentagon has kept Ukraine from launching strikes deep into Russian territory.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has final say over use of the long-range weapons, the Journal said.
Neither Ukraine’s presidential office nor the defence ministry immediately responded to Reuters’ request for a comment outside business hours.
The White House and the Pentagon also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. – Reuters
