Common sense, not geography: Pentagon on allowing Ukraine's strikes into Russia

Ukraine’s Armed Forces are allowed to use missiles provided by the United States to hit targets inside Russia if the country is acting in self-defense, and the area of those strikes is not restricted to areas just across the border with Kharkiv region.

That’s according to the Pentagon, AP reports.

Russia has been firing on Ukrainian targets from inside its border, treating its territory as a “safe zone,” said Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary.

“As we see those forces conducting those types of operations from across the border, we’ve explained Ukraine can and does have the right to fire back to defend themselves,” Ryder told reporters Thursday.

This comes following a recent loosening of restrictions, imposed on Ukraine on the range of the use of longer-range capabilities provided to the war-town nation amid the latest Russian offensive toward Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine, located just near the border with Russia. In the previous move, the U.S. allowed Ukraine to fire donated missiles at targets located in the areas across the border.

The Pentagon said the additional permissions are not a new policy.

“This is not about geography. It’s about common sense,” said spokesman Charlie Dietz. “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.”

“Additionally, they can use air defense systems supplied by the United States to take Russian planes out of the sky, even if those Russian planes are in Russian airspace, if they’re about to fire into Ukrainian airspace,” Dietz said in a statement.

National security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that more was urgently needed as Russia’s military has accelerated missile and drone attacks against cities and infrastructure centers ahead of this winter. The rushed shipments are expected to include hundreds of Patriot missiles.