Live updates: War between Ukraine and Russia, US allows Kiev to fire long-range missiles at Russia

Ukrainians living in the capital Kiev have reacted to US President Joe Biden’s ATACMS decision with a mix of gratitude, optimism – and frustration that the green light to attack targets deep inside Russia with US-made weapons was not given sooner. was granted.

While it is not clear how many ATACMS Ukraine has at its disposal – or what it could target in Russia – a US official told CNN that the weapons are primarily intended for use in Kursk, the Russian region where Ukraine spent the summer launched his surprising counter-offensive. .

“I think it is time to strike all over Russia, because only they understand violence,” Yevhenii Lesyk, a 26-year-old metallurgist, told CNN in Kiev on Monday afternoon. “I think that after the Kursk region they will also give permission to operate throughout Russia. So we’ll see.”

Volodymyr Drach, a 70-year-old reserve colonel from western Ukraine, asked why Biden had taken so long to allow Kiev to use long-range weapons.

“It is long past time to allow the use of long-range weapons, because Putin is affecting all of Ukraine. It is a shame that our Western partners, including the United States, do not understand this,” he said.

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

Liudmyla Havliuk, a 52-year-old Kiev resident who works in sales, said she hoped Ukraine could attack targets other than Kursk.

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