Zelensky Boasts He No Longer Needs US Permission For Long-Range Missile Strikes On Russia

This week saw Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky boast for the first time that his military can conduct long-range strikes on Russian territory using weapons made within Ukraine, and this means he doesn’t need to coordinate these attacks with the United States.

His remarks came in response to a Wall Street Journal report claiming that the US has quietly established a process requiring the Pentagon’s prior approval for Ukrainian long-range strikes using American-supplied weapons. This policy has reportedly blocked such strikes for several months, at a moment President Trump is trying to get the sides to the peace table.

An unnamed official cited by the WSJ said that since late spring this internal Pentagon approval process has effectively blocked Ukraine from using the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to hit targets inside Russia.

While speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this week, Zelensky emphasized that no such restrictions were under discussion and declared that Ukraine uses its own weapons for attacks on Russian territory.

“At the moment, we are using our long-range domestically produced weapons, and we haven’t been discussing such matters with the US lately. There was a time when there were different signals regarding our retaliatory strikes after their (Russian) attacks on our energy system,” Zelensky said.

This followed Zelensky last Thursday unveiling the ‘Flamingo’ cruise missile, reported in The Guardian as follows:

Ukraine’s president announced the huge missile, known as Flamingo, could strike targets as far as 3,000km (1,864 miles) away. “The missile has undergone successful tests. It is currently our most successful missile,” Zelenskyy told reporters. Mass production could begin by February, he added.

This kind of range would bring the Moscow area within striking distance. If Kiev decides to target the Russian capital with cruise missiles – this would likely cause Putin order that Kiev get pounded even harder. 

Throughout well over three years of grinding war, the Russian military has still not directly targeted top-level government buildings in Kiev, or military and intelligence HQs there. That could all soon change.

Business Insider on test-firing video of the Flamingo: I”n the clip, the Flamingo is seen rail-mounted on a canted platform before it is fired. The missile starts climbing upward almost immediately after launch.”

Certainly the White House wants to see some kind of peace deal take effect before things escalate to that point, but neither side appears in the mood for compromise. And given Russia has the clear battlefield momentum, it has little reason to back off Putin’s maximal conditions.