GOOD NEWS, at last, from Ukraine. The approval in April of the Biden administration’s $61bn military-support package, after six months of Congressional delay, is having an impact. In particular, the arrival of ATACMS ballistic missiles, with a range of 300km, means that Ukraine can now hit any target in Russian-occupied Crimea, with deadly effect.
In the past week, the Russian offensive in the north-east against Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, also appears to have lost momentum. Of potentially even greater significance, President Joe Biden, under pressure from a growing chorus of European allies, on May 30th eased the restrictions on American weapons being used against military targets on Russian soil, imposed because of overblown fears about Russian nuclear escalation. The Ukrainians are now to be allowed to use some American kit to hit Russian forces on the other side of the border attacking or preparing to attack Kharkiv. It is not clear whether this would include Russian tactical aircraft launching glide-bomb attacks of the kind that killed at least 18 people in a Kharkiv hardware shop on May 25th.