U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to relax some restrictions on Ukraine's use of U.S. weaponry inside Russia is a small but significant step deeper into the two-year-old war that experts say could help blunt Russia's cross-border Kharkiv offensive.
Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Biden's administration had argued it was too risky to allow Ukraine to strike targets on Russia territory with U.S.-supplied weapons. It feared a major Ukrainian attack could trigger direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
It was a rule that fit neatly with other U.S. prohibitions on supplying higher-end weaponry to Kyiv that have also since crumbled, from advanced U.S. fighter jets to long-range ATACM missiles.