WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has been quietly blocking Ukraine from using US-supplied long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to hit targets inside Russia, effectively limiting Kyiv’s ability to employ the weapons in its fight against Moscow, the Wall Street Journal reported on Aug 23, citing US officials.
The report surfaced as US President Donald Trump expressed growing frustration with the three-year-old war and his inability to secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Following his recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and subsequent talks with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump admitted that negotiations had failed to show tangible progress.
On Aug 22, Trump warned he was weighing “a very important decision” — either imposing massive sanctions or tariffs on Russia, or stepping back from the peace process entirely.
Efforts to organize a direct meeting between Putin and Zelensky have also stalled. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC on Aug 23 that no agenda was in place for a potential summit, saying, “Putin is ready to meet Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all.”
Meanwhile, according to the WSJ, the Pentagon has implemented an approval process that prevents Ukraine from carrying out long-range strikes into Russian territory. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly has the final authority over such decisions. Neither Kyiv nor Washington provided immediate comment on the matter.
