FLASH
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The United States will provide Ukraine with information on energy infrastructure targets inside Russia, two officials told Reuters on Wednesday, while considering whether to send Kiev long-range missiles that could be used in such attacks.
The US is also asking NATO allies to provide similar support, US officials said, confirming details first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The decision marks the first known policy change that President Donald Trump has enacted since toughening his rhetoric toward Russia in recent weeks in an effort to end Moscow's more than three-year war in neighboring Ukraine.
Washington has long shared intelligence with Kiev, but the Wall Street Journal said it would now be easier for Ukraine to strike infrastructure such as refineries, pipelines and power plants in order to deprive the Kremlin of revenue and oil.
Trump has pressured European countries to stop buying Russian oil in exchange for his agreement to impose tough sanctions on Moscow, in an effort to dry up funds for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Neither the White House nor Ukraine's mission to the United Nations immediately responded to separate requests for comment from Reuters. Russia's mission to the UN declined to comment.
Tomahawks
The move comes as the United States is also considering a request by Ukraine to buy Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles, easily enough to hit Moscow and most of European Russia.
Ukraine has also developed its own long-range missile called Flamingo, but quantities are unknown as the missile is in production.
According to US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, the approval for additional intelligence information came shortly before Trump posted on social media last week suggesting that Ukraine could reclaim all of its land occupied by Russia, in a surprising rhetorical shift in favor of Kiev.
"After seeing the economic problems that Russia is causing (the war), I believe that Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and win back all of Ukraine in its original form," Trump wrote on Truth Social last Tuesday, shortly after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calling it a "special military operation" to stop Kiev's geopolitical shift towards the West and what it considers a dangerous expansion of NATO to the east.
Kiev and its European allies view the invasion as an imperial-style land grab.
Trump began his second term as president in January, vowing to quickly end the war in Ukraine.
"President Trump is a special kind of politician. He likes quick solutions and this is a situation where quick solutions don't work," Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said earlier Wednesday during a press conference to mark the start of Russia's presidency of the UN Security Council in October.
Nebenzia also quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that if the US decides to supply Ukraine with Tomahawks, "this will not change the situation on the battlefield."
This is the first time the United States will provide Ukrainian assistance with long-range strikes deep into Russian territory against energy targets, officials told the Wall Street Journal.
Energy revenues remain the Kremlin's most important source of cash to finance the war effort, making oil and gas exports a central target of Western sanctions.
Trump has taken steps to impose an additional tariff on imports from India to pressure New Delhi to stop buying Russian crude at a discounted price, and has also lobbied countries like Turkey to stop buying oil from Moscow.
Earlier on Wednesday, Group of Seven finance ministers said they would take joint steps to increase pressure on Russia by targeting those who continue to increase purchases of Russian oil and those who facilitate circumvention. / Adapted from Reuters /
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