World

Biden allows Ukraine to use US arms to strike inside Russia

Zelenskiy said in his evening address that the missiles would “speak for themselves.”

Published

1 year ago

November 18, 2024

President Joe Biden’s administration has allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia, two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision said on Sunday, in a significant reversal of Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Reuters reported.

Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns.

The move comes two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 and follows months of pleas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine’s military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border.

The change comes largely in response to Russia’s deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces, a development that has caused alarm in Washington and Kyiv, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the decision said.

Zelenskiy said in his evening address that the missiles would “speak for themselves.”

“Today, many in the media are saying that we have received permission to take appropriate actions,” he said. “But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced.”

The White House and U.S. State Department declined to comment.

There was no immediate response from the Kremlin, which has warned that it would see a move to loosen the limits on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons as a major escalation, read the report.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee, said Washington’s decision to let Kyiv strike deep into Russia could lead to “World War Three”.

“The West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning,” Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine’s first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306 km), according to the sources.

While some U.S. 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.

It is not clear if Trump will reverse Biden’s decision when he takes office. Trump has long criticized the scale of U.S. financial and military aid to Ukraine and has vowed to end the war quickly, without explaining how, Reuters reported.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But one of Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers, Richard Grenell, criticized the decision.

“Escalating the wars before he leaves office,” Grenell said, in an X post responding to the news.

Some congressional Republicans had urged Biden to loosen the rules on how Ukraine can use U.S.-provided weapons.

Since Trump’s Nov. 5 victory, senior Biden administration officials have repeatedly said they would use the remaining time to ensure Ukraine can fight effectively next year or negotiate peace with Russia from a “position of strength”.

The U.S. believes more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia and that most of them have moved to the Kursk region and have begun to engage in combat operations.

Russia is advancing at its fastest rate since 2022 despite taking heavy losses, and Ukraine said it had clashed with some of those North Korean troops deployed to Kursk.

Stretched by personnel shortages, Ukrainian forces have lost some of the ground they captured in an August incursion into Kursk that Zelenskiy said could serve as a bargaining chip.

“Removing targeting restrictions will allow the Ukrainians to stop fighting with one hand tied behind their back,” Alex Plitsas, senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said.

“However, like everything else, I believe history will say the decision came way too late. Just like the ATACMS, HIMARS, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Abrams tanks and F-16. They were all needed much sooner,” he added.

Despite Zelenskiy’s pleas, the White House had been reluctant to allow U.S.-supplied weapons to be used to strike targets deep inside Russia for fear this could ratchet up the conflict.

Republican U.S. Representative Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that Biden’s decision was long overdue and that there were still too many restrictions on Ukraine, Reuters reported.

But he added: “This first step will put pressure on Vladimir Putin as President-elect Trump returns to the White House and works to end this war.”

Kyiv’s other allies have been supplying weapons but with restrictions on how and when they can be used inside Russia, out of concern such strikes could prompt retaliation that draws NATO countries into the war or provokes a nuclear conflict.

Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, also called the move a response to North Korea’s involvement.

“President Biden responded to the entry of North Korean troops into the war and the massive Russian missile strike in a language that V. Putin understands – by removing restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western missiles,” Sikorski said on X.

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World

China’s Xi signals trade progress as ‘biggest summit’ with Trump begins

Published

2 hours ago

May 14, 2026

Ariana News

China’s Xi Jinping hailed positive trade negotiations with the United States at the start of a two-day summit with President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday, with discussions also set to cover the Iran war and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

With his approval ratings dented by his entanglement in the Middle East, Trump’s hotly anticipated trip to China – the first by a U.S. president to America’s main strategic rival ‌since his last visit there in 2017 – has taken on added significance, Reuters reported.

“You’re a great leader, sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway,” Trump told Xi after the Chinese leader treated him to a grand reception at Beijing’s imposing Great Hall of the People, featuring an honour guard and throngs of children excitedly waving flowers and U.S. and China flags.

“There are those who say this may be the biggest summit ever,” Trump said. “It’s an honour to be with you. It’s an honour to be your friend and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before,” he added.

Xi opened the summit by telling Trump that stable China–U.S. relationship benefits the entire world. “When we cooperate, both sides benefit; when we confront each other, both sides suffer.”

He also said preparatory talks by economic and trade teams in South Korea on Wednesday had reached an “overall balanced and ⁠positive outcome”, according to a readout by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

The latest round of negotiations aimed to maintain the trade truce struck last October and establish mechanisms to support future trade and investment, officials with knowledge of the matter said.

Joining Trump on the trip are a group of CEOs looking to resolve issues with China, including Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a late addition. Trump has said his first request to Xi will be to “open up” China to U.S. industry.

Musk, Huang and Apple’s Tim Cook were present during the opening talks between the leaders, with Musk telling reporters they were “wonderful” as he left the Great Hall.

This week’s leaders meetings will provide plenty of face time between Xi and Trump: after their initial talks, they will tour the UNESCO heritage site Temple of Heaven and attend a state banquet on Thursday, before taking tea and lunch together on Friday, according to the White House.

POWER DYNAMICS HAVE SHIFTED

The power dynamics have changed since Trump’s last visit to Beijing when China went out of its way to lavish Trump and buy billions in U.S. goods, said Ali Wyne, senior adviser for U.S.-China relations at International Crisis Group.

Back then “China was trying to persuade the United States of its growing status… This time around it’s the United States, unprompted, of its own volition, that is acknowledging that status,” Wyne said, pointing out Trump revived the term ‘G2’, referring to a superpower duo, when he last met Xi on the sidelines of ‌an APEC meeting ⁠in South Korea in October.

Trump enters the talks with a weakened hand.

U.S. courts have hemmed in his ability to levy tariffs at will on exports from China and other countries. The Iran war has also boosted inflation at home and escalated the risk that Trump’s Republican Party will lose control of one or both legislative branches in November’s midterm elections.

Though the Chinese economy has faltered, Xi does not face comparable economic or political pressure.

Nevertheless, both sides are eager to maintain a trade truce struck last October in which Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of rare earths, vital in making items from electric cars to weapons.

They are also expected to discuss forums to support mutual trade and investment and dialogue on AI issues.

Washington looks to sell Boeing airplanes, farm goods and ⁠energy to China to cut a trade deficit that has long irked Trump, while Beijing wants the U.S. to ease curbs on exports of chipmaking equipment and advanced semiconductors, officials involved in the planning said.

IRAN, TAIWAN IN FOCUS

Aside from trade matters, Trump is expected to encourage China to convince Iran to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict. But analysts doubt that Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight to the U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State ⁠Marco Rubio told Fox News aboard Air Force One that it was in China’s interest to help resolve the crisis as many of its ships are stuck in the Gulf and a slowdown in the global economy would hurt Chinese exporters.

For Xi, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China, will be a top priority.

China reiterated on Wednesday its strong opposition to the sales, with the status of a $14-billion package awaiting Trump’s approval still unclear. The U.S. is bound ⁠by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties.

“Trump doesn’t really have that many of the cards to play. But I don’t think that Trump actually sees the situation that way,” said Ronan Fu, an assistant research fellow at Taiwan’s top government think tank Academia Sinica.

Xi has a reciprocal visit tentatively planned for later this year, which would be his first visit to the United States since Trump re-took office in 2025.

World

Trump says no need for China’s help on Iran as shippers seek passage through Hormuz

Published

18 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Ariana News

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he does not expect to need China’s help to end the war in Iran and ease Tehran’s grip on the Strait of ‌Hormuz, in remarks made before he arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a summit with President Xi Jinping.

Speaking before departing from Washington, Trump played down the role China could have in resolving the conflict, in which both sides have blocked maritime traffic through a waterway that normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

“I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise,” he told reporters.

Iran has appeared to firm up its control over the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, cutting deals with Iraq and Pakistan to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the region, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

Iranian officials have signalled they see that control as a long-term strategic goal. An army spokesperson said ⁠supervision of the waterway could generate revenue amounting to twice Iran’s oil income, while strengthening its foreign policy leverage.

“After this war ends, there will be no place for retreat,” the spokesperson said, according to comments carried by ISNA news agency.

More than one month after a tenuous ceasefire took effect, U.S. and Iranian demands to end the war remain far apart.

Washington has called for Tehran to scrap its nuclear programme and lift its chokehold on the strait, while Iran has demanded compensation for war damage, an end to the U.S. blockade and a halt to fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is battling Iran-backed Hezbollah. Trump has dismissed those positions as “garbage.”

World

US war in Iran has cost $29 billion so far, Pentagon says

On April 29, the Pentagon said the war at that point had cost $25 billion.

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2026

Ariana News

The United States’ war in Iran has cost $29 ‌billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month, Reuters reported.

With just six months before midterm elections in which President Donald Trump’s ⁠Republicans may face an uphill battle to keep their House majority, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as they attempt to link the war with cost of living issues.

On April 29, the Pentagon said the war at that point had cost $25 billion.

Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of ‌the ⁠comptroller, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the new cost included updated repair and replacement of equipment and operational costs.

“The joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate,” Hurst ⁠said. He was speaking alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.

It ⁠is unclear how the Pentagon arrived at the $29 billion figure. A source told Reuters in March that ⁠Trump’s administration estimated the first six days of the war had cost at least $11.3 billion, read the repor.