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The Trump administration has banned Ukraine from making long-range strikes into Russia using US-supplied missiles.
The Wall Street Journal reports that US officials have blocked the use of US-manufactured Army Tactical Missile Systems (Atacms), which have a range of nearly 200 miles.
Officials who spoke to the Journal said Ukraine had already been blocked from using Atacms against a Russian target, under a “review mechanism” put in place by Eldridge Colby, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy.
This review mechanism also governs the use of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, because they require US targeting data.
Ukraine was given authority to use the Atacms missile system by President Joe Biden last November.
Before his inauguration, President Trump said allowing Ukraine to use American and British long-range missiles was a mistake.
“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done,” he said.
In a statement to the Journal, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the President “has been very clear that the war in Ukraine needs to end. There has been no change in military posture in Russia-Ukraine at this time.”
On Friday, President Trump reiterated his threat to hit Russia with further sanctions if there is no progress towards a peaceful settlement in Ukraine over the next two weeks.
Trump vented his frustration to reporters after his meeting with President Putin in Alaska didn’t lead to a breakthrough to end the three-and-a-half-year war.
“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” the President said.
Before his meeting with Putin in Anchorage, Trump said he had taken sanctions off the table.
Trump also said he was angry about a Russian strike on an American factory in Ukraine this week, which injured workers.
“I’m not happy about it, and I’m not happy about anything having to do with that war,” Trump said.
President Trump then mentioned that Putin wanted to attend the World Cup 2026 tournament in the US.
“I’m going to sign this [a photograph of Trump and Putin in Alaska] for him. But I was sent one, and I thought you would like to see it, it’s a man named Vladimir Putin, who I believe will be coming, depending on what happens. He may be coming, and he may not, depending on what happens.”
Russia was banned from many international competitions after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the Russian national team has not taken part in qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
On Friday, President Putin said he believes President Trump will help bring an end to the conflict.
“With the arrival of President Trump, I think that a light at the end of the tunnel has finally loomed. And now we had a very good, meaningful and frank meeting in Alaska,” Putin said while touring a nuclear-research facility.
Meanwhile, President Zelensky accused Putin of stalling to end the war, saying the Russian leader would find ways to avoid meeting him face to face, as is now being planned.
“The meeting is one of the components of how to end the war,” Zelensky said on Friday at a press conference in Kyiv with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“And since they don’t want to end it, they will look for space to (avoid it).”
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