WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has been quietly blocking Ukraine from using US-made long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to strike targets inside Russia, limiting Kyiv’s ability to employ these weapons in its defense against Moscow’s invasion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing US officials.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The news came as US President Donald Trump has grown more frustrated publicly over the three-year-old war and his inability to secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
After his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a subsequent meeting with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to produce observable progress, Trump said on Friday that he was again considering
slapping Russia with economic sanctions or, alternatively, walking away from the peace process.
“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Trump said.
Trump had hoped to arrange a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky, but that has also proven difficult. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC on Friday that there was no agenda in place for a sitdown with Zelensky.
“Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all,” Lavrov told NBC, saying no meeting was planned for now.
As the White House sought to persuade Putin to join peace talks, an approval process put in place at the Pentagon has kept Ukraine from launching strikes deep into Russian territory, the Journal reported.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has final say over use of the long-range weapons, the Journal said.
Neither Ukraine’s presidential office nor the defense ministry immediately responded to Reuters’ request for a comment outside business hours. The White House and the Pentagon also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
