Ukraine Strikes In Russia Have Reduced Russian Attacks On Kharkiv

Ukrainian missile and drone strikes against targets inside Russia, near its border with Ukraine, have reduced the number of attacks on Kharkiv, providing further support for the position that such attacks do have a deterrent affect on Russia. JL 

The New Voice of Ukraine reports:

The Ukrainian army's strikes on missile launching positions in Russia helped reduce the number of Russian attacks on Kharkiv. The ability to strike inside Russia had eased the situation in the city. Ukraine could strike at Russian territory using HIMARS, GMLRS, and American artillery shells. Ukraine had already used Western weapons to strike Russian territory several times, most recently in Krasnodar.

The Ukrainian army's strikes on missile launching positions in Russia helped reduce the number of Russian attacks on Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov told Reuters on June 11.

"This has helped," Terekhov said when asked whether the ability to strike inside Russia had eased the situation in the city.

"That is why maybe Kharkiv has ... this period of ... calm the last couple of weeks ... that there were no great strikes as it was, for example, in May.”

The mayor of Kharkiv also emphasized the importance of Ukraine receiving additional multifunctional air defense systems.

 

Use of Western weapons on Russian territory

The United States does not "encourage or enable" Ukraine to use American weapons to strike Russian territory, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on May 17.

Foreign weapons should be used "to reclaim Ukrainian sovereign territory" and this should occur "specifically on Ukrainian territory," the Pentagon stated.

Ukraine likely received U.S. approval to use American weapons for strikes on Russian territory, Le Monde, analyzing statements by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Kyiv, reported.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron pledged $3.74 billion in annual military aid to Ukraine on May 3. London does not object to the use of its weapons for strikes on Russia, he added.

Read also:

 Strikes on Russia will stop Russian Kharkiv offensive, Vovchansk defenders convinced — Telegraph

Le Monde views Cameron and Blinken's statements as "a sign of a deliberate shift in the West's position" on this issue.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown provided evasive answers on May 20, when asked whether Ukraine could use American weapons to strike the aggressor state amid the Russian offensive in Kharkiv Oblast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The New York Times on May 21 that he had asked the United States to allow Ukraine to use American missiles and other weapons on military targets inside Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated his opposition, on May 26, to Ukraine using Western weapons to strike Russian territory.

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson declared that Ukraine could use Swedish weapons for attacks on Russian territory.

The AFP news agency, citing unnamed sources, reported that Ukraine had already used Western weapons to strike Russian territory several times, most recently in Krasnodar.

Read also:

 Two injured, medical facility and two houses damaged in Russian attacks on Kharkiv Oblast

The New York Times on May 31 reported, citing unnamed White House officials, that U.S. President Joe Biden, under pressure from his advisers and key allies, had authorized Ukraine to conduct limited strikes on Russian territory with US-made weapons.

On the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the White House had authorized Ukraine to strike Russian territory with US weapons.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Michael Carpenter told Voice of America that the US authorized Ukraine to strike Russian territory not only to protect Kharkiv from Russian attacks, but also to defend other Ukrainian regions.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine could strike at Russian territory using HIMARS, GMLRS, and American artillery shells. However, the green light from the United States does not include the use of ATACMS. They also clarified that the White House is still against strikes deep into Russia.

Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom officially authorized the use of their weapons to strike Russian territory, Czechia, Poland, and other countries have supported this decision.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that it was better not to discuss Ukraine's right to strike Russian territory in public.

Bild reported on May 31 that Germany authorized Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike Russia with German weapons no further than 40 kilometers from the border. The journalists noted that government had spent several days discussing the matter, and the decision came immediately after a similar authorization was approved in the United States.

 

On the same day, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed that the country had authorized Ukraine to strike with German weapons on Russian territory, but in areas close to the border.