In Crimea, Ukraine is beating Russia

GOOD NEWS, at last, from Ukraine. The approval in April of the Biden administration’s $61bn military-support package, after six months of Congressional delay, is having an impact. In particular, the arrival of ATACMS ballistic missiles, with a range of 300km, means that Ukraine can now hit any target in Russian-occupied Crimea, with deadly effect.

In the past two weeks the Russian offensive in the north-east on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, also appears to have lost momentum. Of potentially even greater significance, on May 30th President Joe Biden, under pressure from a growing chorus of European allies, eased the restrictions on American weapons being used against military targets on Russian soil, imposed because of fears of Russian nuclear escalation. The Ukrainians are now to be allowed to use some American kit to hit Russian forces on the other side of the border as they prepare to attack Kharkiv. It is not clear whether this includes Russian tactical aircraft launching glide-bomb attacks like the one that killed at least 18 people in a Kharkiv hardware shop on May 25th.