US lifts key restriction on Ukraine's strikes on Russia

This is reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing sources.

After the Trump administration came to power, the Pentagon established a procedure for approving Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets using Western missiles that rely on American targeting data.

Under this mechanism, the head of the Pentagon had the final say on whether Ukraine could use Western long-range weapons to strike Russia.

Ukraine did not receive any authorization to use Western missiles until recently, when, according to the WSJ, the authority to approve such attacks was returned to NATO's European Command, headed by American General Alexus Hrinkiewicz.

Ukraine carried out its first approved strike on October 21, when it used Storm Shadow to strike a Russian plant in Bryansk that produced explosives and rocket fuel.

One of the WSJ sources clarifies that the decision to lift the restrictions was made before Volodymyr Zelenskyy's meeting with Donald Trump at the White House last week.

At the time, it was expected that one of the key issues would be the possibility of providing Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Zelensky said that he would offer Donald Trump a deal to receive Tomahawk cruise missiles in exchange for Ukrainian unmanned systems.

After the meeting, the media learned that Trump still did not agree to provide the missiles and the conversation was quite tense.

Later, US President Donald Trump called the news a lie.

The WSJ article that the US allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles deep inside Russia is fake news. The US has nothing to do with these missiles, wherever they come from, or what Ukraine is doing with them.