The agreement, signed on April 30, establishes a joint investment fund between Kyiv and Washington and grants the U.S. special access to projects developing Ukraine's natural resources.
Ukraine is considering moving away from the U.S. dollar and closer to the euro as a benchmark for the hryvnia, National Bank Governor Andrii Pyshnyi told Reuters.
The Atesh partisan group claims it disabled communication at several Russian military facilities when it allegedly destroyed equipment at a transformer substation in the village of Mogiltsy in Russia's Moscow Oblast.
Military personnel look at the destroyed house following a Russian attack on the city of Kharkiv on Sept. 24, 2024. (Nikoletta Stoyanova/Getty Images)
U.S. intelligence agencies have cautioned that Russia may respond with increased force, potentially including lethal attacks on the U.S. and its allies, if Ukraine is allowed to use long-range missiles supplied by the U.S., U.K., and France for strikes deep into Russian territory, the New York Times reported.
The news outlet cited a previously unreported assessment that also downplays the strategic impact these long-range missiles might have on the war, mentioning Ukraine's limited supply and the uncertainty over how many more Western nations may provide those missiles.
The analysis underscores the significant risks and uncertain benefits of the decision, which now lies with President Joe Biden, following his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Sept. 26.
The difficulty in President Biden's decision-making on Ukraine's request for long-range missiles is partly rooted in concerns highlighted by U.S. intelligence, American officials told the New York Times. Zelensky has been pushing both publicly and privately to gain permission to target Russian territory with the advanced missiles.
Vladimir Putin has regularly used threats to deter the U.S. and its allies from sending more sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine. Critics argue that Biden’s administration has been overly cautious, claiming their slow, incremental approach to arming Ukraine has hurt their performance on the battlefield. On the other hand, supporters of the current strategy point to its effectiveness in avoiding major Russian retaliation, though they admit this balance may now be at risk.
The intelligence assessment outlines a range of potential Russian reactions if the U.S. and European nations authorize Ukraine to carry out long-range strikes with their supplied missiles. These responses could include increased acts of sabotage and arson targeting infrastructure across Europe, and even potentially lethal attacks on military installations belonging to the U.S. and its allies.
According to U.S. officials, most of the sabotage in Europe so far has been orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU). If Putin opts to escalate this covert campaign in response to missile strikes deep inside Russian territory, officials believe the Kremlin would likely continue to operate in the shadows, avoiding direct and open attacks on U.S. and European military facilities to prevent triggering a broader conflict.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
