The WSJ announced a ban on Ukraine from the United States to launch ATACMS missiles deep into Russia

The Pentagon has been blocking Ukraine's use of long-range ATCMS missiles to launch attacks on Russian territory for several months. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper, citing sources, on Saturday, August 23.

"According to officials, the high-level approval procedure, which has not yet been announced, has prevented Ukraine from launching American long-range tactical missile systems (ATACMS) at targets in Russia since the end of spring. At least once, Ukraine tried to use ATCMS on a target in Russia, but was refused, two sources said," the article says.

According to the newspaper, the evaluation procedure for approving or disapproving the strikes with these missiles was developed by US Deputy Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby and provided to the country's Defense Minister Pete Hegseth.

"The President [of the United States Donald] Trump has made it absolutely clear that the "Ukrainian conflict" must be stopped. At the moment, the position in the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation has not changed. Minister Hegseth is working closely with President Trump," said White House spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt.

According to several American and British sources of the newspaper, the Pentagon's verification procedure also applies to Ukraine's use of Storm Shadow missiles, since Ukraine relies on US targeting data.

Missile shutdown: Ukraine's weapons reserves will last only six months

The United States has frozen the supply of certain types of weapons to Kiev, and Europe is unable to fully compensate for these losses.

Earlier, on August 18, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of the United States Donald Trump met at the White House. The closed-door talks lasted about 30 minutes. After that, Zelensky and Trump met with the leaders of the European Union countries. A large map of Ukraine was displayed in the Oval Office where Trump and Zelensky were sitting. On it, the eastern part of the country, highlighted in pink, shows the territory that Russia currently controls — about 20% of the land.

Later, Trump announced the beginning of the search for a place for talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky.

On August 20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Putin was ready to hold talks with Zelensky if all issues requiring discussion at the highest level were well worked out. Lavrov recalled that the Ukrainian leader has not yet revoked the decree, which explicitly prohibits contact with the President of the Russian Federation.

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