Live updates: US allows Ukraine to make long-range missile strikes into Russia | CNN

Ukrainians living in the capital Kyiv have responded to US President Joe Biden’s ATACMS decision with a mixture of gratitude, optimism – and frustration that the green-light to strike targets deep inside Russia with American-made weapons was not granted sooner.

Although it is not clear how many ATACMS Ukraine has at its disposal – or where in Russia it may target – a US official told CNN the weapons are intended to be used primarily in Kursk, the Russian region where Ukraine launched its surprise counteroffensive in the summer.

“I think it’s time to allow hitting all over Russia, because they only understand force,” Yevhenii Lesyk, a 26-year-old metallurgist, told CNN on Monday afternoon in Kyiv. “I think that after Kursk region they will also permit to operate all over Russia. So we’ll see.”

Volodymyr Drach, a 70-year-old reserve colonel from Western Ukraine, asked why Biden had taken so long to grant Kyiv permission to use long-range weapons.

“It’s long past time to authorize the use of long-range weapons, because Putin is hitting all over Ukraine. It’s a shame that our Western partners, including the United States, don’t understand this,” he said.

A 35-year-old resident called Tetiana, who declined to give her last name, agreed: “They had to take this decision a long time ago, from the first days of the war.”

Liudmyla Havliuk, a 52-year-old Kyiv resident who works in sales, said she hoped Ukraine will be able to strike targets other than in Kursk.

“My son is fighting since the start of the war. So we fully support a permission for our boys to hit them (the Russians) everywhere in Russia. They should have given us such permission a long time ago instead of waiting. How many of our people died? What they’ve been waiting for?”