Biden’s move on Ukraine missiles has angered Trump’s allies

President Joe Biden’s seemingly green-light for Ukraine to hit Russia with US-made long-range missiles has caused confusion among some of Donald Trump’s allies.

Trump himself did not comment, but he won the election after pledging to end the war – and several people close to him criticized the move as a dangerous escalation.

Biden has committed tens of billions of dollars to the Kyiv war effort, and over the weekend he reportedly abandoned a long-standing red line on Ukraine’s use of American weapons to attack deep into Russia.

Donald Trump Jr tweeted that the president was trying to “end World War III” before his father took office.

Biden’s decision has not been officially confirmed and may never be again.

When asked how normal it would be for a presidential administration to make such an important policy decision in its final months, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Biden “was elected for four years, not three years and ten months.”

“We will use every day of our term to pursue policies that we believe are in the best interest of the American people,” he said. “If the incoming administration wants to take a different view, that is, of course, their right to do so.”

“There is only one moderator at a time,” he added. “When the next president takes office, he can make his own decisions.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that no such announcement would be forthcoming – “the missiles will speak for themselves”.

Trump went on to victory on November 5 and is expected to return to the White House for a second term starting on January 20 next year.

Trump campaigned on a promise to end US involvement in wars and instead use taxpayer money to improve the lives of Americans.

He said he would end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours, without saying how.

One thing is for sure, though: Trump has always seen himself as a salesman and won’t want Biden to take any such credit.

His son, Donald Trump Jr, was among the first Republicans to respond.

“The military industry seems to want to make sure they start World War Three before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he said.

Another vocal Trump supporter, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, criticized Biden, too.

“The American people voted on November 5th against these last American decisions and they do NOT want to support or fight foreign wars. We want to fix our problems,” he wrote in X.

Not all of Trump’s allies, including his national security advisers during his first term, share this view — although they have been critical of the Biden administration.

James Gilmore, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told the BBC that the biggest problem with Biden’s decision to provide Ukraine with this new capability was that it came too late in the war.

“My criticism of Biden is the same as that of all the other Trump campaigners and supporters — which is that the Biden administration has gone too far on this one,” he said.

Gilmore said he does not know what the president-elect will choose to do about Ukraine once he takes office. “I don’t believe he is a man who usually travels,” he said.

Polls suggest a majority of Republicans want the US to support Ukraine – 62% told a poll by Pew Research that the US has no responsibility to support the country against Russia.

Senator JD Vance, who will be Trump’s vice president, has always opposed providing arms to Ukraine. He pointed out that the US does not have the production capacity to continue supplying weapons such as the missile systems that Kyiv will use to strike inside Russia.

Gilmore, however, said the US was able to push back and improve its weapons systems through the process, but said US allies in Europe would need to take a bigger role.

“President Trump is right about this – the alliance is stronger when Western European countries rise,” he said. “The United States cannot continue to do it alone. The taxpayer will not allow it, the next administration will not allow it, and neither will I.”

Since launching the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian president has been criticizing the US-led Nato alliance – and described all promises of military support made by Western allies in Ukraine as direct involvement and warned of retaliation.

His spokesman said on Monday the US was “adding fuel to the fire”.

At times, Putin has suggested the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

Few believe that this could happen since, under the doctrine of mutual destruction established during the Cold War when nuclear weapons were developed, Putin knows that their use will bring great suffering to all, including the Russians.

But the Russian leader will be fully aware of the magnitude of the threat of long-range ballistic missiles provided by the West.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, has published a map of 225 Russian military bases within the ATACMS.

The former US envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said that Biden’s decision would make Ukraine “go after airfields, ammunition depots and fuel supplies, things that Russia has, which are currently in a sanctuary in Russia”.

Biden’s decision will make Russia more cautious, Volker told the BBC.

Dismissing Putin’s threats, he said the Russian leader “should have expected that there would be attempts by Ukraine to retaliate”.

Ukraine has had ATACMS and UK and French Storm Shadow missiles of the same range for some time, although the numbers are unknown. But it is not allowed to use them inside Russia.

France and the UK are expected to follow the US lead and grant similar authority to Ukraine. So far, they have not commented.

White House officials insist to American media that Biden’s change of heart is in response to Russia’s deployment of troops to North Korea – a signal to Pyongyang not to send more.

Gilmore, Trump’s OSCE envoy, told the BBC that he believed “Putin has escalated the war” by sending troops into North Korea, and the US cannot “just stand by and let this dictator continue to conquer Ukraine”.

“I don’t like it and I take everything very seriously, but the decision is not ours. The decision is forced on us by Putin – the dictator,” he said.

The move also follows a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine in recent days.

One strike in Odesa on Monday killed ten people, including seven police officers, and injured 47 others.