Donald Trump Jr has accused President Joe Biden of trying to start WWIII before his father can take office after the US gave the green light for Ukraine to blast targets deep inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles.
The decision is a major US policy shift and comes as Biden is about to leave office and President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to limit American support for Ukraine and end the war as soon as possible.
Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr, posted on X after Biden’s decision was announced, saying that ‘the military industrial complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives’.
David Sacks, a tech millionaire who was a major donor for Trump’s presidential campaigner, added that Biden permitting Ukraine to use US-supplied missiles in Russia would ‘massively escalate’ the situation.
‘President Trump won a clear mandate to end the war in Ukraine. So what does Biden do in his final two months in office? Massively escalate it. Is his goal to hand Trump the worst situation possible?’ Sacks said.
Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, according to sources. The first deep strikes are reportedly likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted that the reports about Biden’s policy change had not been openly confirmed by the White House but said the ‘missiles will speak for themselves’.
Zelensky had been pressing Biden for months to allow his country to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with US-supplied missiles, saying the ban had made it impossible for Kyiv to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
Former senior NATO official Nicholas Williams has called the decision to allow Ukraine to fire US-supplied missiles into Russia ‘significant in terms of the end game’.
‘It is significant. The Ukrainians may say it’s too little too late but it’s not too late to affect the end game,’ he told Sky News.
Williams also said the decision was important for ‘positioning Ukraine to not make the significant concessions which Russia wants in order to get peace’.
The weapons are likely to be used in response to North Korea‘s decision to send thousands of troops to Russia in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine, according to sources.
Around 10,000 soldiers from the communist regime have joined the fight to reclaim Kursk, which Ukraine seized in a daring counter offensive last August.
Biden hopes that this response will ‘send a message’ to Kim Jong Un not to send any more, sources said.
The US allowing Zelensky‘s forces to use its supplied missiles for strikes deep into Russia has raised expectations for the UK to follow suit with its Storm Shadow missiles.
Keir Starmer has previously said that he would be in favour of giving the green light for the Storm Shadow missiles to be used.
Starmer’s French counterpart Emmanuel Macron echoed this sentiment, which might mean that France could also soon allow Ukraine to fire their supplied long-range missiles into Russia.
Russia is set to launch a major assault with some 50,000 soldiers to retake Kursk.
The ATACMS missiles can strikes Russian and North Korean troop concentrations, key pieces of military equipment, logistics nodes, ammunition depots and supply lines deep inside Russia.
Zelensky has repeatedly argued that being able to strike inside Russia would blunt Moscow’s advances and disrupt its ability to launch devastating missile attacks on Kyiv.
Britain tried to table a plan to allow Ukraine to use UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, but they are reliant on US navigation systems to be effective and Washington blocked the move.
Zelensky has been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with US-supplied missiles, saying the ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
While some US officials have expressed skepticism that allowing long-range strikes will change the war’s overall trajectory, the decision could help Ukraine at a moment when Russian forces are making gains and possibly put Kyiv in a better negotiating position when and if ceasefire talks happen.
