The newly granted permission by the United States and other allies to use Western weapons to strike inside Russia has had a huge impact, Bankir said. While Kyiv hasn’t managed to reclaim large swathes of territory, it has successfully averted what could have been a disaster: The occupation of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. “(Russia) knew that Ukraine did not have the capacity to strike these targets on the Russian territory,” Melnyk said. While Ukraine was previously able to strike targets inside Russia using Ukraine-made drones, ATACMS make these strikes far more efficient. However, Ukraine can still use the F-16 to deny Russia control over the skies – and push away Russian aircraft delivering bombs.

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