Strikes Deep Into Russia May Be US Effort to Prevent Negotiations: Special Envoy

"A certain group of Democrats, who are either losing or relinquishing power, are trying to escalate the situation amid the transfer of power to Donald Trump, who has increasingly been speaking about some kind of peaceful resolution to the conflict, namely a political and diplomatic path. I think the task of the White House or its satellites was to disrupt this trajectory, essentially halting even the possibility of discussions about a peaceful settlement," Rodion Miroshnik, the Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry for the Crimes of the Kiev Regime, suggested on Wednesday.

On Sunday, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed representatives of the US administration, that Biden had for the first time authorized Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to strike Russian territory. According to the sources, the first strikes deep into Russian territory will most likely be carried out with ATACMS missiles. Le Figaro newspaper reported that France and the UK had also authorized Ukraine to use their long-range weapons to attack Russian territory, but later removed this information from its article. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claimed that this authorization pertains to strikes within a 300-kilometer (186 miles) radius inside Russia.