Firefighters rushed to rescue people as a Russian missile hit an apartment building in Kharkiv early Friday morning, leaving a street in ruins, just hours after U.S. officials revealed the news. Policy shift Allow Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia to defend against such attacks.
The shift is narrow, allowing Ukraine to use U.S. air defenses, guided rockets and artillery to fire at Russia along the border near Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, a region riven by fighting over the past three weeks as Russian troops crossed the border to open a new front.
But the Biden administration had drawn red lines before cross-border fighting broke out near Kharkiv, fearing escalation. Russia has been firing missiles and massing troops from the safety of its own territory, out of range of Ukraine’s Soviet-era weapons.
The attack prompted Ukraine to urgently call on the Biden administration to lift the shackles, saying the use of Western weapons was purely defensive. In fact, when U.S. officials authorized the use of the weapons, they said they could only be used for self-defense in the border area.
Still, it was a major reversal that Ukraine hopes will help it regain its footing in a war now dominated by Russia, and a historic moment for the United States: It appeared to be the first time a U.S. president had authorized the limited use of American weapons in a strike against a nuclear-armed adversary.
Ukrainian officials have not yet responded to the policy shift. It is unclear how much of the weapons program approved by the U.S. Congress last month has arrived in northern Ukraine or when Ukraine will be able to use them.
Ukrainian military officers welcomed the decision and said that with powerful, precise U.S.-supplied weapons already in Ukraine’s arsenal, they would be able to fight the Russians on the border without fear.
The arsenal includes howitzers and guided rockets from the United States, while France and Britain have provided Storm Shadow and Scap cruise missiles.
“Does the Ukrainian Defense Forces know from where the aggressors are attacking Kharkiv?” said Col. Yurii Ihnat, a Ukrainian air force officer, referring to missile launch sites in Russia. “Obviously, we know,” he said in a text message, noting that Ukraine has so far been unable to fight back.
Russian officials have been asserting all week that the situation risks escalation if NATO countries allow Ukraine to fire more freely at Russia, and on Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that “such an endless escalation could lead to serious consequences.”
The Kremlin often uses former Russian President Dmitry A. Medvedev to issue its most threatening warnings, claiming on Friday that Russia’s current conflict with the West was heading toward a “worst-case scenario” and threatening to respond with “destructive force.”
Ukrainian officials have said allowing the use of Western weapons could help turn the tide of the border fighting and prevent an attack on the city of Kharkiv, whose center is just 24 miles from Russia and could be defended against by striking missile launchers and aircraft inside Russia.
Before the Biden administration changed its position, officials from Britain, France, Poland and Sweden had expressed support for using their own weapons to attack Russian territory, and NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg had also expressed support for allowing Ukraine to use weapons from NATO member states to attack targets within Russia.
Friday’s attack on the city was exactly the kind of attack Ukraine was using to urge the United States to revise its policy.
“Unfortunately, a multi-storey apartment building was hit,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement after the early morning missile strike, the latest in the city’s almost daily updates on explosions and casualties.
Mr. Terekhov said a fire broke out at the scene. Minutes after the first missile hit the scene, another missile hit the same location in a “double-tap” tactic designed to target emergency workers.
The attack killed three people and wounded 23, according to local news reports, which cited regional governor Sergei Sinehubov. He said the wounded included a police officer and a medic who rushed to the scene after the first missile exploded. He said a Russian S-300 missile, an obsolete anti-aircraft missile modified by Russia to attack ground targets, hit the apartment building.
Ukraine has been using its own fleet of long-range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia. Ukrainian officials said before the announcement in Washington that the U.S. weapons would help Ukrainian troops in ground operations north of Kharkiv and help Ukrainian air defenses defend the city.
For the residents of Kharkiv, the bombing threatened every aspect of their lives.
Due to the short flight paths of bombs and missiles, civilians receive little or sometimes no warning and have no choice but to sleep and live their lives in the knowledge that they may be hit by a missile at any time.
“Everything happened in an instant,” said Andriy Kolenchuk, a production manager at the printing company that was attacked on May 23. He said there were explosions, lights flashing, and debris falling from the ceiling. Dust and smoke flew everywhere, and “everyone was running around covered in blood.”
Russian bombs and missiles often strike Ukraine’s second-largest city, which has a population of about one million, several times a day. A missile attack on a hardware store on May 25 killed 19 people, one of the deadliest attacks in recent weeks, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klimenko.
Maria Varenikova reported from Kharkiv, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia.
