The United States has changed its policy on Ukraine’s strikes against Russia, but this does not apply to ATACMS missiles.

Michael Carpenter, Senior Director for Europe at the U.S. National Security Council, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

U.S. President Joe Biden has instructed his team to change its position on the possibility of Ukraine using U.S. weapons to strike military targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.

“This comes in the context of the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, after which the Ukrainian side came to us and asked for permission to be able to strike targets in Russia that were firing against Ukrainian positions, Ukrainian cities, and villages,” Carpenter noted.

He emphasized that President Biden, immediately upon receiving a request from Ukraine “had directed his national security team to change the guidance to enable these sorts of counter-strikes.”

Carpenter called it a “direct response” that provides a cross-border counter-fire capability.

However, the official added that the decision was aimed at disrupting the Russian offensive and “does not apply to ATACMS or long-range strikes.”

“Immediately upon receiving this request, President Biden ordered his national security team to change the guidance to allow for these types of counterstrikes. And those guidelines are in place. So this is a direct response that provides, among other things, the possibility of fire countermeasures across the border. But this does not apply to ATACMS or long-range strikes,” Michael Carpenter emphasized.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially confirmed that Ukraine was authorized to use U.S. weapons against military targets in Russia.

Previously, President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that he had received confirmation of permission to strike military targets inside Russian territory with American weapons.

“We had a message from the American side. Early this morning I received this message from my military. I cannot tell you the details. I want to see what will happen in practice. But the fact is that in any case, this is a step forward towards this goal that we discussed earlier, to enable us to protect our people who live in the settlements, near the border. And as of today, that’s all,” Zelensky said.

The day before, Western media reported that the Biden administration had approved the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strikes on Russian territory only near the Kharkiv region.