The Pentagon has blocked Ukraine's long-range missile strikes against Russia. According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, the Defense Department has quietly withheld approval for deep-sea strikes on Russian soil as the White House unsuccessfully tries to persuade Moscow to enter peace talks.
The deterrent to the Ukrainian attacks is a high-level Department of Defense approval procedure—still unannounced—that prevents firing U.S.-made Long-Range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) at targets in Russia. This has been the case since late spring, several officials told the outlet. On at least one occasion, Ukraine attempted to use ATACMS against a target on Russian territory but was repulsed.
The bureaucratic mechanism controls the extent to which Ukrainians can fire long-range weapons made in the United States, as well as those provided to Ukraine by European allies who rely on American intelligence and components. ATACMS have a range of nearly 300 kilometers, which can seriously disrupt Russian logistics and activity in its rear. With them, kyiv can threaten Russian headquarters and airfields. But the final say rests with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, effectively reversing President Joe Biden's decision in his final year in office to allow Ukraine to attack inside Russia with ATACMS. As president-elect, Trump called Biden's allowing Ukraine to attack inside Russia"stupid."
The last ATACMS authorized for shipment to Ukraine by the Biden administration arrived in the spring, and Kyiv has only a few left. It is developing a new cruise missile, the Flamingo, that could be produced in significant numbers later this year or early next year.
The US has given conflicting signals about the extent to which it supports Ukraine and the extent to which it embraces the Russian narrative. In a social media post on Thursday, Trump said Ukraine could not defeat Russia unless it could"go on the offensive" in the war. In July, Trump promised to provide new weapons to kyiv as long as Europe agreed to pay for them. However, the US has not allowed Ukraine to use its full capabilities. According to the WSJ, the Pentagon's review procedure also applies to the use of another missile, the Storm Shadow, as it is based on targeting data provided by the Americans.
Ukrainian attacks
Russia blamed Ukrainian drone strikes for a fire at a nuclear power plant in its western Kursk region. Several Russian energy facilities were attacked overnight. There were no injuries and the blaze was quickly extinguished. A fire also broke out at the port of Ust-Luga in Russia's Leningrad region, home to a major fuel export terminal, where at least 10 Ukrainian drones attacked the area.
Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day this Sunday, which commemorates the country's declaration of independence and withdrawal from the Soviet Union in 1991."Another Independence Day they said we wouldn't celebrate," headlined the Kiev Independent on its front page. But the celebration comes at a more complicated time than a year ago. Russian forces have advanced very slowly—and at great cost—in eastern Ukraine and now control around 20% of the country's territory, slightly more than in 2024, but less than in the early stages of the major invasion, in 2022. The US president has said he is considering imposing more economic sanctions on Russia or withdrawing from peace talks. But the decline in his support for kyiv is what gives Moscow an advantage it has never seen before in this war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called for an unconditional ceasefire and accused Russia of"doing everything possible" to prevent a meeting with Putin to try to end the war.
