U.S. official: Biden secretly gave Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia with western weapons

joining me now on set is NBC News global security reporter Dan Delo Kelly O’Donald my colleague is at the White House for the latest Kelly let’s get to you quickly this is a notable shift in policy by the White House and it comes amid critical a lot of pressure right now on the administration to get on the same page as what NATO and America’s European allies have been saying that’s right Peter and the original intent here was President Biden and his administration wanted to be careful to provide weapons but to not be so provocative that American weapons could be used inside Russia perhaps drawing the us into a direct conflict with Russia that has been one of the principal ideas uh behind the president’s approach since the war in Ukraine began now we’re at a point two plus years into the fighting where what we see is that Ukraine has suffered uh dramatic setbacks over the just the Relentless push from Russia and some of that is staged inside Russia and then targeting Ukraine and so making this adjustment which as you pointed out is aligned with some of the thinking of European allies who are also critically important in support for Ukraine would allow Ukraine to prevent those attacks by striking inside Russia uh at the bases or operation points where Russian soldiers and forces are working on their own land but projecting uh Munitions into Ukraine so that’s the sort of scope that we’re talking about here this isn’t about going to Moscow or a more aggressive approach but trying to prevent damage by uh attacking inside Russia where needed and Dan let me bring you into this conversation a bit you and I were talking in the break here right this is part of a pattern and it’s one the conservatives Republicans have criticized the White House on here which is them sort of slow walking in the eyes of these critics being reluctant before finally agreeing tanks fighter jets and Beyond the White House recognizing they needed to do more to help Ukraine sort of take the hand cffs off that’s right and it’s really you see friction now between the Ukrainian government and the white house because of this pattern you often have Tony blinkin the Secretary of State Bill Burns the CIA director staking out the Bolder more aggressive stance in those policy deliberations the end result is the White House and the president come around but the ukrainians will say look at the time lost look at the lives lost and now you have a fairly desperate situation there in the north and they desperately feel they need to hit Russian forces just over the border so that so specifically it is to try to keep this in a narrow realm as we heard from Kelly there the desire is not to start targeting Moscow go nowhere near Vladimir Putin so to speak in the Kremlin here but really to try to Target these forces and other launch points where this offensive is coming from right that’s right because the White House wants to send a message too to Moscow like you know we don’t want to direct conflict with Russia that’s right but so these will be this is a limited area around the Border having said that Ukraine on its own with its drones that they make themselves have been striking in side Russia repeatedly in these kind of sabotage actions where they hit oil facilities or they he hit an air base so those will continue and of course uh that’s really angered Moscow and Kelly what I’m struck by here is if we put this into Political terms quickly you got what’s going on in Gaza with Israel you got what’s going on between Russia and Ukraine is that in a lot of ways as it relates to the president’s foreign policy his I guess his future his fate is dependent on things out of his control what Vladimir Putin and Russia decides to do and effect what Benjamin Netanyahu is deciding to do there was only so much control this president has had but here’s here’s an opportunity where they’re trying to at least try to seize some control and do more as so often the case with the president outside events or other actors can dramatically affect uh the set of cards that the president must play and that certainly is true here we’ve seen the resistance among lawmakers about supplying Ukraine as you were talking about delays that might be coming from Administration choices that’s been coupled with uh the delays in getting funding for Ukraine and it also comes at a time before the G7 Summit which is coming up in Italy uh in early June and tomorrow the Belgian prime minister uh of course NATO is housed in Belgium uh will be here at the White House and it begins a kind of renewed sense of these conversations with European Partners about the US role in trying to defend and protect Ukraine and help it in its own own operations against Russia without going beyond that and of course politically for the president he separates the decisions he needs to make his commander and chief but the overall politics are certainly being watched by voters here at home who are weary of some of these interventions and at the same time you also do see support for a sovereign Democratic country like Ukraine among some of the electorate so it’s a hard needle to thread for the president and he’s trying to maintain and show leadership that the can bring Europeans together and can he can be a supportive partner when they sometimes uh take an early lead on certain things yeah all smart points there Kelly Dan I want to ask you one other question on a separate topic this is relating specifically to the defense intelligence Community right now releasing new findings about debris from a missile attack that was discovered inside Ukraine and the determination was made with as they descri describe it almost certainly that this came from a North Korean missile this is a big Revelation if it proves to be true it means that the Russian relationship with North Korea which we knew to be tight was even stronger that North Korea could be providing Munitions specifically to Russia right now how concerned is the us about this and and frankly How concerned should we be about this pattern and it’s the way it’s going I think it’s very concerning and the and the intelligence Community has been warning now for a while you have this deepening kind of alliance between Russia North Korea and most of all China and uh this is a case where you have North Korea already helping Russia giving them a lot of artillery ammunition and then in this case they’re actually using North Korean ballistic missiles and they used the the DIA looked at photos publicly available photos intelligence agency and they yes and they just show that you know look these missiles are clearly North Korean and they came to that conclusion so it’s yet another example of this kind of what the US considers this kind of Nefarious network of of authoritarian States all lining up against Ukraine and other democ atic countries yeah also revealing that Vladimir Putin needs the assistance of other countries to have the ammunitions he needs to continue this war now two and a half years old Dan Delo thank you Kelly o donnal at the White House Kell always good to see you thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media

NBC News Global Security Reporter Dan De Luce and Senior White House Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell join Meet the Press NOW to discuss new reporting that the Biden administration secretly authorized Ukraine to strike inside Russia with U.S.-provided weapons.

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23 comments

  5. I didn't vote for this.
    Biden voters must be so tickled they approved W W I I I when they punched their ticket for "decency."]
    No wonder they all still wear masks, I wouldn't show my face, either!

  7. A 😮😢😮😢😢😮 bad ＆ nasty 😮😮😢😢😢😮 retired director from General Dynamics, previously worked in San Diego, probably more than 85 yrs old now, is abusing US Gov's monitoring satellite to harass normal US civilians, inside USA & all over the world for his own entertainment & amusement.

    These remote sensors of the monitoring satellites are capable of interpreting the words you're thinking in your mind, may be, by air vibration or by scanning the brainwaves from your brain.

    The Israeli IDF are using similar satellite technologies to spy on the Hamas leadership hiding deep inside the Gaza Tunnels. IDF once released footage of these videos in much degraded resolution.

    This could also have been the way how our intelligence services obtained classified information on Xi Jinping's missile deployment within China.

    This retired General Dynamics director could have been the mastermind behind the plane crash killing the Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown of the Clinton Administration, in the plane crash in 1996 in Croatia.

    The United States as we learned and studied in American high school does not exist anymore; it has been destroyed.

    United States have been dead. American citizens don't have human rights.

    This retired Director of General Dynamics is indeed a national disgrace of the United States.

    If this America disgrace wants to harrass any American civilian, he just puts the name of this American into our Gov. blacklist for monitoring, and he can harass this American civilian.

    United States must stop this disgrace retired director from General Dynamics.

    Our Congress should carry out an investigation into our Gov satellite misuse. I am willing to testify in Congress.

    I can give White House my name and let them check if I have been wrongly put onto the blacklist of terrorists for monitoring, just for some retired director from General Dynamics for his personal amusement and entertainment.

    I am requesting help here from White House. That's why I'm typing all these.

    White House can simply remove my name from the list of terrorists being monitored by the American intelligence services.

    I am the victim of abuse of American monitoring satellites.

    It's easy to check. White House may check if my name is on the terrorist monitoring list. I am willing to contact White House.

  13. We support USA give permission to Ukraine to strike back inside Russia. Why? assuming two rivals would stand few feet from the border line, One shoots, other died because it can't be allowed to shoot back the enemy in defense. This is stupidly unfair.

  19. See, Biden is a joke, and if Trump ain't able to run, I won't vote at all because voting for Biden, the worst president in history, would make me feel less than human. I will never call Biden president.

  21. Biden is unintelligent, incompetent and reckless. The men around him appear to be the same. If the US hits Russian cities then Russia has every right to attack US cities. So far Russia has been restrained because they have an intelligent leader who understands that an escalation between Russia and the US could quickly become a world war. Our leaders on the other hand have been provoking Russia at every turn and at some point Russia will be forced to respond. Russians have seen war in their country, they lost 27 million in WW2 compare to one million lost by America. Most of the American warmongers have never been to war and will not be hurt even if the US is hit because they will be sniveling in their shelters. They couldn't care less their citizens.

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