Tuesday Briefing: Ukraine is poised to strike inside Russia
Good morning. We’re covering Ukraine’s window to strike inside Russia and Donald Trump’s deportation plan. Plus, revelations from a kids’ soccer coach.
Ukraine is poised to strike inside RussiaPresident Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that Kyiv’s first launches of long-range weapons inside Russian territory would come soon and without warning. The move signals a new sense of urgency after President Biden’s decision to allow long-range strikes inside Russia using American-provided missiles. American officials said the missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile Systems, were likely to be deployed, at least initially, against Russian and North Korean troops in the Kursk region of western Russia. While Biden’s decision may help Ukrainian troops under fire in the short term, it is unlikely to change the trajectory of the war, according to American officials and military analysts. In Moscow, the Kremlin said the Biden administration’s decision was a major step toward a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. Context: Biden allowed the Ukrainians to use the long-range missiles after months of pleas from Ukraine. But hanging over the decision is President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January. It is unclear how much of the Biden administration’s approach to Ukraine will survive once his successor takes office. A parting message: At the start of the G20 summit in Brazil yesterday, Biden used one of his final moments on the global stage to encourage more world leaders to assist Ukraine.
Trump intends to use the military for deportationsPresident-elect Donald Trump confirmed yesterday that he intended to declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military in his plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Trump addressed his plan for mass deportations in a social media post. Trump’s top immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, described the policy in interviews with The Times last year. He said that military funds would be used to build “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” for immigrants as their cases progressed and they waited to be flown to other countries.
Nearly 100 aid trucks were looted in GazaA large convoy of trucks carrying aid was “violently looted” in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, UNRWA, the U.N. agency that helps Palestinians, said. Drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload supplies and nearly 100 of the 109 trucks in the convoy were lost in one of the worst such incidents of the war, UNRWA said. The agency said that the episode highlighted the challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza. Earlier this month, a U.N.-backed panel said that all of Gaza faced a risk of famine from now until April, with the north at particular risk. Beirut: Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s capital, the first in weeks, forced residents to come to grips with another escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. |
