Biden answers missile pleas from Ukraine as clock ticks down

US President Joe Biden's decision to authorize Ukraine to use long-range American missiles against targets inside Russia is a bold shift in position in the final months before he hands over power to Republican Donald Trump.

Despite repeated pleas for a greenlight from Ukraine, Biden had long resisted calls for a change from within the US Congress and latterly from allies such as Britain.

But with the clock ticking down before the inauguration of Trump - who has expressed admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and vowed to end the fighting in Ukraine in "one day" - on January 20, Biden has given permission for the powerful Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to target Russian territory.

The New York Times and The Washington Post, which first reported the news, said the 81-year-old Democrat's shift came in response to North Korean troops being deployed to help Moscow's war effort against its neighbor.

Previously, US officials had worried about the danger of escalating the conflict with nuclear-armed Russia, as well as the risk of depleting Washington's own stocks of the valuable munitions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had pleaded again for restrictions to be lifted on Friday.

"We see every site where Russia is amassing these North Korean soldiers on its territory - all their camps. We could strike preventively, if we had the ability to strike long enough," Zelensky said in an evening address.

On Sunday, he noted that the reports about Biden's policy change had not been openly confirmed by the White House but said the "missiles will speak for themselves."

Putin has warned that the use of ATACMS inside Russia would mean the NATO alliance being "at war" with his country - a threat he has made previously when Ukraine's Western backers have escalated their military assistance.

Western intelligence reports suggest that around 10,000 North Korean troops are being deployed in Russia.

- European moves -

The American shift is likely to lead European allies to review their stances on long-range missiles, even though experts say the weapons alone will not decisively tilt current battlefield dynamics.

France and Britain have provided Ukraine with their long-range Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles, but have held back from authorizing their use inside Russia without American approval for ATACMS.

During a meeting with French leader Emmanuel Macron on Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain discussed how to put Ukraine in "the strongest possible position going into the winter," his office said afterward.

Speaking in Argentina on Sunday, Macron said Putin "does not want peace" and that "it's clear that President Putin intends to intensify the fighting."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to supply Ukraine with his country's Taurus missiles with a range of over 310 miles (500 kilometers) over fears that they could hit Russian territory.

In the final two months of the Biden administration, US officials have promised to spend the remaining $6 billion of approved Ukraine funding at their disposal.

It is unclear how many ATACMS remain in Ukraine's arsenal.

The missile is made by US defense group Lockheed Martin and has a top range of 190 miles (300 kilometers).

- Negotiation -

Trump has provided no specifics on how he plans to end the conflict in Ukraine, and is expected to pressure Kyiv to give up its claim to some or all of its territory conquered by Russia.

Trump's pick for his National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, said recently that "pouring more billions in (to Ukraine) is the definition of insanity at this point," adding that the conflict was a "stalemate."

Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has even mocked Zelensky online, sharing a clip on Instagram last weekend that said the Ukrainian leader was just weeks away "from losing your allowance."

Writing Sunday about Biden's missile decision, he said "the military industrial complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives."

Russia pounded Ukraine on Sunday with a massive attack that killed 11 civilians across several regions and damaged the country's already fragile energy grid.

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Russia pounded Ukraine on Sunday with a massive attack that killed 11 civilians across several regions and damaaged the country's already fragile energy grid, as the world prepared to mark 1,000 days since Moscow's invasion. Nationwide emergency power restrictions would be implemented Monday ahead of a much-feared winter, the state grid operator announced.President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting Kyiv as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.  The attack, which officials said was one of Russia's largest, came as Moscow's assault neared its 1,000th day, which will be marked at the United Nations on Monday. Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions. Rescuers scrambled to respond, with firefighters in the Odesa region hosing down heavily damaged buildings, showing a baby crib damaged in a residential house. The devastation comes at a time when Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraine's east and with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House, raising fears over the future of US support for Kyiv.Many fear a third winter of war will be the toughest yet, with Ukraine's energy infrastructure already damaged by intense Russian attacks. "Tomorrow, November 18, all regions will be forced to apply consumption restriction measures," grid operator Ukrenergo posted on social media. "The reason for the temporary return of restrictions is the damage to power facilities during today's massive missile and drone attack." Russia has already destroyed half of Ukraine's energy production capacity, Zelensky has warned.  The giant attack Sunday came two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, urging the Kremlin chief to end Moscow's devastating offensive.- 'True response' -Kyiv had slammed Scholz for reaching out to Putin, and said Sunday that the attack was the Kremlin's real answer."This is war criminal Putin's true response to all those who called and visited him recently," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said after the attack. "We need peace through strength, not appeasement." Scholz on Sunday defended the call and insisted that Berlin's backing for Kyiv was unwavering."Ukraine can count on us," he said before flying to a G20 meeting in Brazil, promising that "no decision will be taken behind Ukraine's back" on ending the conflict. But Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined the backlash on Sunday."No one will stop Putin with phone calls. The attack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine," Tusk wrote on X. The barrage came as the UN Security Council is due to mark 1,000 days of Moscow's February 2022 invasion, with Ukraine's foreign minister Andriy Sybiga travelling to New York for an event on Monday. - Civilian deaths across Ukraine -AFP journalists heard explosions in the early morning in Kyiv and close to Sloviansk in the Donetsk region. Moscow, meanwhile, said it had hit all its targets, claiming it had targeted an "essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex".But civilian deaths were reported across the country. Officials in Kherson reported the deaths of four people.  In the southern Mykolaiv region, local leader Vitaliy Kim said two women were killed in a night attack and seven people - including two children - were wounded.  The death toll included two employees of the state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia in the city of Nikopol, who were killed when a depot was hit, the Dnipropetrovsk region's governor Sergiy Lysak and the operator said. Three others were wounded in the bombing.Two people were also killed in the Odesa region, where a teenager was wounded. Russian drones also made their way to Zakarpattia, a mountainous region rarely targeted, with officials saying fragments fell in the village of Pavshyno, near the border with Hungary and Slovakia. The head of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytsky, said a 66-year-old woman was killed in her car in Sheptytsky, a village around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Polish border.  That prompted NATO-member Poland to scramble fighter jets and mobilise all available forces on Sunday in response.Warsaw puts its armed forces on alert whenever attacks against its neighbouring country are deemed likely to create a danger for its own territory. Russia said Ukrainian drones attacks had killed a man in its border Belgorod region and a woman - named as local journalist Yulia Kuznetsova - in the border Kursk region.  Kursk leader Alexei Smirnov said she had been reporting on the "situation in the region", where a Ukrainian incursion has displaced thousands. The West and Ukraine says thousands of North Korea soldiers are in Russia, with some in the Kursk region, to reinforce Moscow's forces.  bur-oc/js