WASHINGTON--The U.S. so far deems Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region a protective move appropriate for Kyiv to use U.S. equipment, officials in Washington said, but they expressed worries about potential complications as Ukrainian troops push further into enemy territory.
Ukraine has said its advancing troops have so far pushed 35 km (21 miles) into Russia since launching the incursion on Aug. 6. Kyiv says it has no interest in occupying Russian land and is creating a buffer zone to protect its border areas from Russian attacks.
U.S. officials said Kyiv's overarching goals remain unclear. "It complicates the policy the more they progress into Russia without defined terms," a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
The official said that if Ukraine starts taking villages and other non-military targets using U.S. weapons and vehicles, that could raise questions about whether it is within the limitations Washington has imposed.
A second U.S. official said Washington's weapons policy was not designed for Ukraine to invade Russia, although Kyiv was technically in compliance. As a result, the official said, President Joe Biden's administration has not taken a strong public stance in support of or opposition to the assault.
It was unclear which U.S.-made weapons or equipment have been used in the incursion. The Pentagon said last week that Ukraine was "taking actions to protect themselves from attacks that are coming from a region that are within the U.S. policy."
Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, the U.S. has stood firm with Ukraine, providing more than $50 billion worth of military equipment. Seeking to avoid a broader conflict with geopolitical rival Russia, the Biden administration initially put strict limits on use of its weapons.
Those have slowly been loosened, with Washington allowing Ukrainian strikes in Russia where attacks are emanating from. Yet despite appeals from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the U.S. still limits the use of its weapons for long-range attacks on Russian territory. The Biden administration has not publicly defined "long-range."
"We have been very, very clear and consistent that we really want to see Ukraine focus on defending themselves against this aggression inside of course their borders," White House national security spokesman John Kirby told MSNBC on Thursday.
"We don't encourage and we don't enable attacks outside of Ukraine except for in those exigent circumstances where we believe just over the border they're facing some imminent threats," he said.
The administration is working to determine what Ukraine's goals actually are with the offensive, which the U.S. officials said caught Washington by surprise. One official said: "It's not unusual for them to do things without letting us know."
One possible aim of the operation, they said, appeared to be to force Russia to pull some troops out of Ukraine. One official said intelligence indicated at least some movement of Russian troops from Ukraine's Kharkiv towards the Kursk region.
The gambit looks like it is starting to pay off, but "we'll have a clearer picture in the weeks ahead," said one U.S. official. Biden has not spoken with Zelenskiy since they met twice in June in France and Italy, the official said.
