It’s a line that the Biden administration has long refused to cross. While providing military aid and logistical support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, the White House for years has steadfastly opposed the use of American weapons for strikes against targets inside Russia itself. But could that stance be changing?

Speaking to reporters while in Moldova on Wednesday, Mr. Blinken hinted that the administration could soon relent and give Kyiv the green light to strike Russian military targets on Russian soil with American-provided weapons systems. He said the U.S. is willing to “adapt and adjust” its approach as conditions change on the ground. Those conditions now clearly favor Russia, as some analysts say that delays in U.S. aid to Ukraine and limits on how such aid is used have given Moscow momentum.

Once again, the Biden administration appears to be trailing behind its European counterparts. Case in point: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg this week explicitly called on alliance members supplying weapons to Ukraine to lift restrictions on Kyiv using them to strike military targets inside Russia, Washington Times Military Correspondent Mike Glenn reports. The announcement, coupled with new comments from French President Emmanuel Macron, places Mr. Stoltenberg at odds with the U.S., NATO’s largest and most powerful member, at least for now. 

For the Biden administration, it’s been a familiar pattern. The U.S. slow-walks the delivery of American weapons systems to Ukraine — or in this case a policy shift on where those weapons can be used, out of fear of provoking Moscow or escalating the Russia-Ukraine conflict into a broader European war.

And Russia routinely takes advantage of that fear. Hours after Mr. Stoltenberg’s comments, Russia’s state-run Tass News Agency prominently featured a story on its website about how the “likelihood of a full-scale war breaking out between Russia and the West is growing,” according to Russian International Affairs Council Director General Ivan Timofeev. He told the news outlet that the reason for a potential new world war between Russia and the West is that “the West continues to provide large-scale military assistance to Kyiv.”

Some specialists refer to it as nuclear blackmail, as thinly veiled references to the Kremlin’s massive nuclear stockpile have often been at the center of Russia’s threats. Researchers at the Atlantic Council say that President Vladimir Putin is using that same playbook yet again, hoping to stop the U.S. and Europe from giving Ukraine the green light to hit targets in Russia with Western weapons.

North Korean weaponry is playing an increasingly significant role in Russia’s war in Ukraine. A new report by The Defense Intelligence Agency made public on Thursday found that “Russia used ballistic missiles produced in North Korea in its war against Ukraine.”

“Through careful analysis of open-source imagery, DIA analysts confirm the debris found in Kharkiv on Jan. 2, 2024 is missile debris from a [North Korean] short-range missile,” the study says. It’s the latest sign of the deepening military cooperation between the two nations.

The DIA revelations came just hours after North Korea fired a barrage of suspected ballistic missiles toward its eastern sea, according to South Korea’s military. The missile launches followed a so-called “trash attack” Tuesday, when Pyongyang sent some 260 “filth balloons” across the DMZ into South Korea. Amid all of that, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is traveling to the Pacific this week to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. He’ll also visit Cambodia.

The rising tension and fast-moving developments on the Korean peninsula have led some U.S. policymakers to call for a major shift in U.S. policy. In a sweeping proposal for U.S. military investment, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, former chairman and now ranking Republican on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, floated the idea of redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea. The U.S. previously removed its nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991.

Some experts and former U.S. officials are already rejecting the idea.

Speaking to the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum on Thursday, the Chinese president reiterated calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and promised more humanitarian aid for people in Gaza. He pledged another $69 million for Gaza and also said his country will donate about $3 million to a United Nations agency that provides assistance and relief to refugees of the Israel-Hamas war. The U.S. has tried to provide its own humanitarian assistance, including with the construction of a $320 million pier along the Mediterranean coast — though the pier broke apart just a week after becoming operational.

The human suffering in Gaza has fueled a backlash against Israel. But Israeli officials say their operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah will continue.

“Hamas has been holding our hostages in Rafah, which is why our forces are operating in Rafah,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Thursday. “Hamas is holding our hostages in living hell across our border in Gaza, including in Rafah. We will not stop fighting for their freedom.”

Late Wednesday, the IDF said it seized control of a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt to cut off Hamas smuggling tunnels.

The Biden administration’s humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza, now broken apart and partially sinking, is rich with symbolism, writes Cheryl Chumley, online opinion editor, commentary writer and host of the “Bold and Blunt” podcast for The Washington Times.

“President Biden ordered the U.S. military to build a $320 million floating pier to serve as a provision point for aid to Palestinians in Gaza. And now it’s sinking. Of course it’s sinking,” she writes. “Truly, is there a better symbol for the Biden administration than the pier that’s sinking in waters off Gaza?”

• May 30 — Africa’s Oil Economies Amidst the Energy Transition: Angola, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

• May 31 — Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2024 Launch, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

• June 4 — The Book Launch | “The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century,” Middle East Institute.

• June 4 — Supreme Allied Commanders on the Past, Present, and Future of NATO, Hudson Institute.

• June 4 — Flashpoints and High Stakes: America’s Blueprint to Counter China, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).