Biden and Scholz both agree Kyiv can use Western weapons to strike targets in Russia

The change in US policy comes among much hand-wringing by Ukraine’s allies on the use of the weapons they have provided to Kyiv, with both the Italian and German governments voicing their opposition to moves to allow Ukraine more freedom to retaliate.

However, German news website Spiegel reported on Friday that the country’s coalition government had also approved Ukraine’s use of German-supplied weapons for strikes on Russia.

Having previously stressed that Germany had only supplied weapons to Kyiv to prevent a further escalation of the war, Chancellor Olaf Scholz appears to have reassessed his stance in view of the worsening battlefield situation since Russia began a fresh offensive on the Kharkiv region earlier in May.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, reacted to the news on Friday with trademark bluster in a lengthy Telegram tirade, in which he vowed Russia would unleash hellfire and brimstone on Western countries should there be further escalation.

Medvedev, accusing NATO of having direct control of all long-range weapons stationed in what he termed “former Ukraine”, threatened their destruction along with similar weapons in other countries from where attacks on Russia were launched.

Expressing his frustration at the delays in promised Western weapon supplies and at allied indecision on their deployment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with The Guardian on Friday that while he understood the West had different priorities and lacked Ukraine’s sense of existential urgency, he sometimes thought that “the murderers, terrorists, who are killing us from the Russian side” were “laughing at this situation”.

“They understand that we can see them, but we cannot reach them,” Zelensky added.