Biden decision to allow Ukraine more widespread use of U.S. weapons a ‘game changer’

The Biden Administration’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike targets inside of Russia with long-range precision U.S. arms gives the war torn country a chance of holding onto their sovereignty, according to the leader of a Boston based Ukrainian organization.

Vsevolod Petriv, Boston Branch President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, told the Herald that the change in U.S. policy represents a significant shift in the balance of battlefield power.

“This move will allow Ukraine the ability to attack supply lines and military formations before they can be brought to bear on Ukrainian sovereign soil. Being able to move from a primarily defensive posture and take a more offensive approach is a big step forward towards stopping Russia’s stated military objective of subjugating and eliminating Ukraine as a nation,” he said.

According to Petriv, Biden’s decision, made public Sunday through White House sources, “is a game changer and one that the Ukrainians have been pleading for since the early beginning of the Russian invasion.”

“You can’t win a football game without scoring points,” he said.

The development came as Ukraine was under heavy Russian attack on Sunday, and while the U.S. is grappling with the addition of North Korean soldiers to the European battlefield.

According to reporting, Ukraine will be allowed to fire the U.S. made MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), a vehicle mounted weapons system capable of firing missiles close to 200 miles, at targets inside of Russia. That’s not enough to threaten Putin in Moscow, but more than enough range for Ukraine to defend their northern border now that North Korean troops are apparently amassing near Kursk.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not provide a statement on the change in policy or offer a timeline for any attacks, saying instead that “blows are not inflicted with words. Such things are not announced. The rockets will speak for themselves.”

Petriv said that U.S. support has been “key in this fight,” but wondered why aid “seems to arrive just in time and in a way that the opponent has had ample time to prepare for the additional capability.”

Biden’s recent decision may prove more substantial than previous aid packages.

“This move can have a greater impact and so I am more hopeful it will produce greater results,” Petriv said.

The Kremlin was swift in its condemnation and took a shot at the looming end of Biden’s administration at the same time.

“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps, and they have been talking about this, to continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Biden’s move will “mean the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in military action against Russia, as well as a radical change in the essence and nature of the conflict,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

The war in Ukraine started in 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, and continued in a pair of separatist regions over the following eight years. Russian launched a full-scale invasion in February of 2022, when it’s army  captured large swathes of Ukrainian territory. The war has ground to a standstill in the months since, with massive casualties on both sides.

According to the U.N., the war has displaced more than 10 million Ukrainian civilians and left half again as many in need of humanitarian assistance. A “confidential” Ukrainian estimate of war dead showed more than 1 million people have died as a result of the conflict.

In the years that have followed Russia’s invasion of their democratic neighbor, according to the Department of Defense the U.S. has “committed approximately $56.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine through both presidential drawdown authority and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.”

According to Petriv, it’s important everyone remember that “If Russia stops fighting the war is over. If Ukraine stops fighting Ukraine as a nation ceases to exist. This is a case of pure one-sided aggression.”

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, has raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue military support to Ukraine. He has also vowed to end the war quickly.

The cue for the policy change was the arrival in Russia of North Korean troops, according to Glib Voloskyi, an analyst at the CBA Initiatives Center, a Kyiv-based think tank.

“This is a signal the Biden administration is sending to North Korea and Russia, indicating that the decision to involve North Korean units has crossed a red line,” he said.