The State Department neither confirmed nor denied permission for long-range strikes on Russia

Media outlets report that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols, in an interview with Brazilian newspaper O Globo, seemingly confirmed President Joe Biden’s authorization for Ukraine to strike Russia with Western-made long-range missiles. However, the official did not provide a direct confirmation or denial in his statement.

The question posed to Nichols by the Brazilian publication was: “The U.S. authorized Ukraine to use American-made long-range missiles. Could this lead to further escalation of the war?”

“We must remember that the war started with Russia’s new unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine could end right now if Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine and respects Ukraine’s borders. This has always been the case. The weapons President Biden authorized for Ukraine will give it more self-defense capabilities and, hopefully, lead the Russian Federation to realize that using force to seize Ukrainian territory will not be successful, perhaps prompting it to negotiate peace or, better yet, to simply leave Ukrainian territory,” Nichols replied.

As can be seen, he did not explicitly state an authorization for long-range missile strikes, nor did he deny the wording of the question.

This has also been the approach taken by other White House officials in recent days: neither confirming nor denying such permissions.

Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan indicated that long-range missiles for Ukraine would not be decisive, according to Bloomberg. Sullivan highlighted that Ukraine’s more pressing issue is a shortage of manpower on the front lines.

“We believe that no single weapons system is decisive in this battle. It is about personnel, and we believe Ukraine needs to do more to strengthen its positions in terms of the number of forces on the front line,” Sullivan said in an interview with PBS News Hour.

Sullivan also did not offer any official confirmation or denial regarding whether Kyiv had been granted permission for long-range strikes using U.S. missiles.

Bloomberg also pointed out that Biden’s possible decision was not followed by similar permissions from European allies, “indicating a weakening influence of the outgoing president.”

It should be noted that reports of Biden authorizing Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russia’s Kursk region began circulating on November 17.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has updated its nuclear doctrine and stated that Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles against Russia could provoke a nuclear response.