2024-11-18 14:19 update: 2024-11-18, 14:21
Photo: PAP/Tomasz Waszczuk
The Polish interior minister has praised Joe Biden's permission on Monday to let Ukraine strike deep into Russia with US-made weapons, a long-awaited decision taking place after months of talks between Washington and Kyiv.
Tomasz Siemoniak wrote on the X platform that "This is the only and appropriate response to (Russian President Vladimir - PAP) Putin, who understands only force. Nearly 1,000 days of this aggressive war leaves no doubts about that."
The Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine marked its 1000th day on Monday, with Moscow now being backed by North Korean troops on the battlefield. Kyiv is struggling to drive the Russian forces out of the Donetsk region, where the latter have been making swift advances over recent weeks.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski was also vocal about Biden's lift of the ban.
"The victims of aggression has the right to defend themselves. Strength deters, weakness provokes," the minister wrote on X.
Biden's green light for Ukraine to strike back means that Kyiv is now able to use long-range US-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles to hit Russian territory. The decision came on the same day Russia struck the Ukrainian power grid yet again, triggering power outages in several cities and killing at least seven.
In early September, various Ukrainian media outlets reported on Moscow's strengthening offensive in Donbas. At that time, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cautioned against the lifting of the ban on Ukraine using Washington's weapons to attack Russia and said that such a move would not turn the war in Kyiv's favour. Since then, Russian troops have occupied several villages, and have advanced to within 10 kilometres of the Dnipropetrovsk region – the eastern part of Ukraine bordering the almost fully-occupied Donetsk region. (PAP)
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