As Moscow Counterattacks, Kyiv Gets Green-Light To Hit Russia

ANALYSIS – Ukraine on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two, bursting through the border into the region of Kursk with a blitzkrieg of thousands of troops supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including Western-made arms.

Ukraine claimed at the end of August to have taken control of some 100 Russian settlements and almost 810 square miles of territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also conceded Russia had launched its own counterattack in the region but insisted that the shock incursion was still going to plan.

Still, Russia claims it has now recaptured 10 settlements in its Kursk border region.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has long pleaded with the West for permission to use the weapons it has provided, such as the Washington-supplied ATACMS, ground-launched ballistic missiles, to hit deeper into Russia.

The ATACMS have a nearly 200-mile range. 

Until now the U.S. and its allies have been reluctant out of fear of crossing Russian red lines.

But now the U.S. and U.K. are poised to lift restrictions on Ukraine using Storm Shadow missiles against targets inside Russia, risking crossing Moscow's red lines. (RELATED: Report: White House Set To Approve Strikes Deep Inside Russia Using Western Missiles)

The U.K.-provided cruise missiles were initially supplied to Ukraine with assurance that they wouldn't be used against targets in the Russian Federation, though they might be permitted to strike targets in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, such as Crimea.

The, primarily air-launched, Storm Shadow missiles can hit targets up to 155 miles from their launch site – meaning that they could strike well within Russian territory.

Until it was given ATACMs, this cruise missile was the longest-range standoff weapon to be delivered to Ukraine since Russia invaded.

Developed in an Anglo-French collaboration, they are armed with a penetrating warhead capable of destroying hardened and buried targets from long range. (RELATED: Give Ukraine Weapons And Permission To Hit Deep Russian Targets)

As The War Zone explains:

The missile has a BROACH tandem warhead designed to penetrate hardened targets, including bunkers. The warhead uses a precursor charge to punch through hardened structures followed by the main change that can be fuzed for penetration mode when required, meaning it detonates after breaching the target. The missile guidance system combines an inertial navigation system, GPS, and terrain referencing.

Speaking in St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin sent a clear warning to the West: don't allow Ukraine to use your long-range missiles to strike Russian territory.

Moscow, he said, would view that as the “direct participation” of NATO countries in the war in Ukraine.

A day later, on Sept. 13, Newsweek reports, the chairman of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, a Putin ally, suggested on Telegram that NATO is heavily involved in the military decision-making of Ukraine.

Volodin, who didn't provide any proof, accused NATO of helping Ukraine choose which Russian cities to target, and of giving Kyiv orders and of agreeing on specific military action.

Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday rebuffed Putin's threats, saying: “Russia started this conflict.”

“Russia illegally invaded Ukraine,” he added, “Russia can end this conflict straight away.”

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