U.S. allies are already reaching that conclusion. On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “The right to self-defense includes hitting legitimate targets outside Ukraine.” On Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron of France said, “We think we must allow (Ukraine) to neutralize the (Russian) military sites from which the missiles are fired.” Poland gave a similar green light; Britain has hinted at it. And on Wednesday in Moldova, Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to foreshadow a U.S. shift, noting that the Biden administration has always “adapted and adjusted” to changing circumstances. The Post reports that Mr. Biden has decided to give Ukraine permission to fire U.S. weapons into Russia around Kharkiv, a major city in Ukraine’s northeast that has been under fire in recent weeks.
Russia has been destroying Ukrainian targets with weapons launched from inside its borders. On Saturday, Russian glide bombs hit a home improvement superstore in Kharkiv, killing 19 people. These are large, airdropped conventional bombs retrofitted to fly longer distances toward a target. They are extremely difficult for air defenses to stop, yet Ukrainian-made weapons lack the capability to strike the air bases inside Russia from which they are launched.
A U.S.-supplied ballistic missile system in Ukraine’s arsenal, the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) could enable Ukraine to threaten Russian bases, neutralizing Russia’s advantage. The ATACMS’ range of up to 190 miles is nearly twice that of an earlier missile system the Biden administration gave Kyiv. But since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion more than two years ago, President Biden has insisted that all U.S.-provided weapons be used only on Ukrainian territory (including Crimea, which Russia occupied in 2014).
The reason for Mr. Biden’s restriction is that Russian President Vladimir Putin had frequently warned the United States not to escalate the conflict, lest it trigger “World War III.” His most recent such threat came on Tuesday, when he said, “Constant escalation can lead to serious consequences.”
Mr. Biden’s posture has prompted criticism that he is micromanaging, and hence weakening, Ukraine’s war effort. The criticism is most justified in the case of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s oil industry, deep within Russian territory. These help deprive Moscow of a key revenue source, but the Biden administration has discouraged them out of concern over rising oil prices.
Still, the president’s fears are not unfounded and his caution broadly defensible, in light of Mr. Putin’s unpredictability, the ever-present chance of miscalculations — and Russia’s arsenal of battlefield and strategic nuclear weapons. Both Russia and the United States keep nuclear-armed missiles on launch-ready alert. The Biden administration is right to insist that Ukraine not threaten Russia’s nuclear weapons systems; it was probably not a good idea for Ukraine to use drones to attack Russian early-warning radars that help safeguard against a mistaken launch.
The United States and its allies have agreed to supply Ukraine’s arsenal, train its troops, and provide economic and humanitarian assistance but not deploy their own forces. That must remain the case. The American people do not want to fight Russia directly — nor should they. Russia’s invasion is primarily Ukraine’s war, and its troops have fought it courageously.
Thus far, however, Mr. Putin has not followed through on his most dangerous threats of escalation, whether to use nuclear weapons or to expand the war beyond Ukraine. He knows that the consequences for Moscow itself could be devastating.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military situation remains dire. Russia is exploiting Ukrainian shortages in troops and ammunition, has improved its deployments and electronic jamming of Ukraine air defenses, and is ramping up its military industrial machine. If the war degenerates into a long-term contest of attrition, as seems highly possible, Russia would have advantages of sheer size and population over Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine needs to strike military targets inside Russia’s borders to stop Russia raining bombs on its cities and taking more territory. Importantly, Ukraine seeks to use U.S. arms on only military targets, in contrast with Russia’s routine infliction of cause civilian deaths.
Mr. Biden appears to have made the right, albeit limited, decision to give some of the permission Mr. Zelensky seeks. The express, but not necessarily public, condition should be that the weapons be used against military targets only. Such moves are calculated risks. But they are well worth taking to help Ukraine defeat cross-border aggression, maintain hard-won national sovereignty and stake out a future as a prosperous democracy.
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