Ukraine has admitted that it is actively using American-made bombs to strike within Russia’s Kursk region as it embarks on a counter-invasion.
U.S. GBU-39 glide bombs are being used to hit targets within the Russian mainland, Ukraine Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk revealed this week, state media outlet Ukrinform reports.
A video published on Thursday by the general purportedly showed his forces using the high-precision American weapons to strike a drone control hub, an electronic warfare unit, military equipment, weaponry, and around 40 “personnel” within Russia, meaning members of the Russian military may have been killed with U.S. bombs in Kursk.
While the outgoing Biden administration has not approved the use of long-range American ATACMS missiles within Russia, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh suggested this week that shorter strikes with American weapons into Russian territory does not violate current American policy.
Singh said Thursday that the White House is still in the process of “trying to understand” Ukraine’s “strategic objectives on the battlefield” with its incursion.
The U.S., like Germany, Ukraine’s largest European financier, has claimed that it was not made aware that Kyiv was planning to launch its counter-invasion incursion into Russian territory on August 6th.
Apparently mimicking Russian rhetoric used to justify its invasion and military occupation of Ukrainian territory, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that the purpose of the Kursk invasion is to establish a “buffer zone” to prevent further attacks on his country.
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Thursday that Moscow believes that Washington is moving towards removing all restrictions on the use of American weapons within Russia.
In a Ukrainian Independence Day address on Saturday, Zelensky said that soon Ukraine will be able to strike “any point” within Russia, London’s Daily Telegraph reports.
“Our enemy will know what the Ukrainian way of retaliation is… They will know that, sooner or later, a Ukrainian response will reach any point in the Russian federation that is a source of danger to the life of our state or our people,” he said.
“And the one who wanted to turn our land into a buffer zone should think about preventing his country from becoming a buffer federation,” Zelensky added.
On Friday, First Deputy Defence Minister of Ukraine Ivan Havryliuk argued that lifting restrictions on the use of long-range Western weapons to strike against Russian military targets would not represent a “threat of escalation in the war, but a way to end it.”
“It is long-range weapons, aircraft, and the powerful air defence that will bring closer the moment when the Kremlin finally realises that the Russian army cannot succeed in Ukraine, that the price of war is too high for Russia.”
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