German and Ukrainian soldiers stand in front of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to a military training area in Germany, 11 June 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/JENS BUETTNER / POOL

Washington has freed Kyiv to use US-supplied weapons to strike military targets anywhere on the frontline, Politico reported on Thursday, citing National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

The revised policy no longer limits the Armed Forces of Ukraine to attacking Russia across the frontline with its Kharkiv region, expanding that to “anywhere that Russian forces are coming across the border from the Russian side to the Ukrainian side to try to take additional Ukrainian territory”, Politico said.

“This is not about geography. It’s about common sense. If Russia is attacking or about to attack from its territory into Ukraine, it only makes sense to allow Ukraine to hit back against the forces that are hitting it from across the border,” Sullivan said.

While Sullivan stressed that this was not a change in policy, Politico observed that it was markedly different from what US officials had said in May when Ukraine was only able to use US weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv, in the east of the country.

The policy of not allowing long-range strikes inside Russia “has not changed,” an unnamed US official told Politico.

This is the second major revision of US policy in the field this year, following the US reversing its ban on Ukraine using US-supplied weapons for anything but defence after Russia intensified its attacks along the border with the Kharkiv region in May.