Two U.S. officials, when asked for comment, confirmed that the Biden administration's policy has not changed. "The assistance is for the defense and not for offensive operations in Russian territory," said one of the officials, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
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The Russians are "smart now," Ustinova said, "because they know there is a restriction for Ukrainians to shoot at the Russian territory. And we saw all of their military equipment sitting one or two kilometers from the border [near Kharkiv] and there was nothing we could do."
The U.K. government this month lifted a similar restriction on the use of British weapons inside Russia, an announcement made by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron during a visit to Kyiv. "Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself," he said.
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U.S. officials increasingly believe Putin's plans to mobilize new military units, coupled with additional ammunition from Beijing and dwindling Western support for Kyiv, could land him a win in Ukraine — and sooner than expected.
It might not be the win that Putin originally wanted, which was a total takeover of Ukraine. But by the end of this year, he may be able to use his gains to negotiate favorable terms for Moscow, three officials familiar with Western intelligence say.
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Ukraine has for months launched strikes inside Russia using its own small drones to attack oil facilities. But officials in Kyiv insist they need the more powerful U.S. missiles to break through Russian air defenses along the border.
"Everybody knew the Russians near Kharkiv [were] bringing the manpower, everybody knew they were bringing a lot of artillery, so what they're aiming at doing now is they're going to turn Kharkiv into the second Mariupol, or Aleppo," Ustinova said.
"We keep coming back to the same problem — that it's Russia telling us what we should be doing," she said. "You're giving us a stick but you will not let us use it."
