US official refuses to confirm decision on long-range missilespublished at 13:31 Greenwich Mean Time
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington
US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer has refused to confirm that the US has made the decision to allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russian territory – saying only that the US has repeatedly said it “would respond” to the deployment of North Korean forces in Kursk.
While Finer declined to confirm the policy change, he said that “the fire was lit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, which he referred to as “the main issue”.
Reports of a shift in US policy have been met with criticism from prominent Republicans, albeit for varied reasons.
Some, such as Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker – the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services – characterised the decision as too little, too late, and condemned President Joe Biden for having moved too slowly.
In a statement, Wicker said that the policy change “does not excuse the administration’s deliberate slow-walking of items and assistance long authorised by Congress for use against Putin’s illegal aggression.”
Others, including the president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr, accused the White House of escalating the conflict.
“The military industrial complex seems to want to make sure they get to World War Three before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.