Biden cements legacy wlth deczszon to let Ukraine use US mzsszles on Russza

Move fuelled by fears of Putin using US transfer of power as chance to subdue Kyiv

- Jonathan Eyal

Better late than never. That's how Ukrainian officials reacted to US President Ioe Biden's decision to allow Ukraine's armed forces to use their US-supplied missiles for strikes deep inside Russia.

It's been over a year since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for precisely such a US concession.

He has now got his wish, just as Russia has embarked on a systematic drones and bombs campaign to destroy Ukraine's entire electricity grid in a bid to freeze ordinary Ukrainians into submission during the country's harsh winter.

There is no question that the US move is risky. Russian President Vladimir Putin has frequently said that if US-manufactured missiles started raining on his country's cities, Russia would view this as the "direct participation" of Western militaries in the war in Ukraine.

And in the early hours of Nov 18, Russian legislators duly warned about a potential "World War III".

Still, Mr Biden - who leaves office in about eight weeks - has decided that he is willing to take risks because he is determined to cement his legacy as Ukraine's stalwart supporter, in distinction to President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to force Ukraine to sue for peace with Russia.

The Biden administration also calculates that the danger of a significant escalation into an outright US-Russian confrontation remains manageable.

Since February 2022, when Russian troops embarked on their all-out invasion, every piece of Western military equipment delivered to Ukraine came with strict conditions on how it should be deployed.

The Ukrainians were expected to use their Western equipment purely defensively to hold their front lines or push back the Russian invaders, but not to hit inside Russia.