The Russian offensive against Kharkiv is ongoing, but Ukraine can do little to defend itself if it cannot prevent enemy personnel and munitions from actually creeping into Russian territory.
Ukrainian forces are frustrated that they have been forced to stand idly by while Putin's forces line up on the Russian side of the border. A frustrated Ukrainian soldier told The Telegraph that he had been watching tens of thousands of Russian troops gathering behind the border for weeks before they launched the attack on Friday, 20 miles north of Kharkiv.
Speaking in Kiev yesterday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reassured his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, but did not say that he had received permission from Joe Biden to put the Russians back in his pocket. The unscheduled meeting ended practically without tangible results.
Ukrainian military officials flew to Washington to ask the United States to do what Britain had already authorized against the targets of the military parade. Ukrainian parliamentarians blame US restrictions that allowed Russia to mobilize forces behind the border and were activated last week.
“We could have disrupted the Russian plans before the actual collision, but we couldn’t because we didn’t get permission from the US government,” one of them said on condition of anonymity.
“We saw their army sitting a kilometer or two from the border, and we couldn't do anything about it,” said Oleksandra Ustinova, head of the Ukrainian parliament's arms committee. Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the US Institute for Foreign Policy Research, wrote in Foreign Affairs that the Russian attack represents a tactical shift by Moscow, which since 2022 has launched ground attacks almost exclusively from occupied Ukraine.
David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary of the London government, had previously indicated to President Zelensky that he could use British missiles (mainly drones) against targets inside Russia, but American officials still insist that American weapons can only be used in parts of Russia. Occupied Ukraine. Strikes against Russian forces.
Now, as the Kremlin consolidates itself in the border region and begins a new series of attacks, Washington is under pressure to change its cautious US policy, fearful of escalation.
More recently, Ukrainian leaders have warned that Russia is amassing additional forces behind its border near Sumy, about 90 miles northwest of Kharkiv, in what analysts say is a sign of other attack sensors.
“Ukraine must be allowed to defend itself with every means at its disposal,” says John Foreman, a former British military attaché in Moscow and Kiev. According to the expert, there is no point in keeping weapons stored if they cannot be used. “I think it would be reasonable for the United States to reconsider this policy,” Foreman said.
