Russia Chides US Over Allowing Ukraine To Hit Its Soil With Long-Range Weapons

President Joe Biden's decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles was met with ominous warnings from Moscow, a hint of menace from Kyiv and nods of approval from some Western allies.
Biden's shift in policy ded an uncertain and potentially crucial new factor to war on eve of its 1,000-day milestone.

News of Biden's change came on day a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions struck a residential area of Sumy, a city in norrn Ukraine, killing 11 people, including two children, and injuring 84 ors.
On Monday, anor Russian missile attack started fires in two apartment blocks in Odesa, in sourn Ukraine. At least eight people were killed and many more were injured, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said in a video he posted on Telegram from site of attack.

Washington is easing limits on what Ukraine can strike with U.S.-me weaponry, U.S. officials told Associated Press on Sunday, after months of ruling out such a move over fears of escalating conflict and bringing about a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

scope of new firing guidelines isn't clear. But change came after U.S., South Korea and NATO said recently that North Korean troops are in Russia and apparently are being deployed to help Russian army drive Ukrainian troops out of Russia's Kursk border region.

Russia is also slowly pushing Ukraine's outnumbered army backward in eastern Donetsk region. It has also conducted a devastating and dely aerial campaign against civilian areas in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday referred journalists to a statement me by Russian President Vlimir Putin in September, in which he said allowing Ukraine to target Russia would significantly raise stakes in conflict.
It would change " very nature of conflict dramatically," Putin said at time. "This will mean that NATO countries — United States and European countries — are at war with Russia."
Peskov claimed that Western countries supplying long-range weapons also provide targeting services to Kyiv. "This fundamentally changes modality of ir involvement in conflict," Peskov said.

Last June, Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to ors to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use ir arms to attack Russian territory. He also reaffirmed Moscow's reiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in about two months' time, has raised uncertainty about wher his ministration would continue United States' vital military support for Ukraine. He has also vowed to quickly end war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a muted response to approval that he and his government have been requesting of Biden for more than a year.
"Today, much is being said in media about us receiving permission for relevant actions," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video dress Sunday.
"But strikes are not me with words. Such things are not announced. missiles will speak for mselves," he said.

foreign minister of NATO member Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said he's not "opening champagne" yet as it remains unclear exactly what restrictions have been lifted and wher Ukraine has enough of U.S. weapons to make a difference.

Margus Tsahkna, foreign minister of Estonia which is anor Baltic country that fears a military threat from Russia, said easing restrictions on Ukraine was "a good thing."
"We have been saying that from beginning — that no restrictions must be put on military support," he said at a meeting of senior European Union diplomats in Brussels. “And we need to understand that situation is more serious (than) it was even maybe like a couple of months ago.”