Over the summer, Russia fired four North Korean Hwasong-11 ballistic missiles into Ukraine. Last week, Russia received 220 Iranian Fath-360 missiles, rockets designed to hit targets at Mach 4.

Now America and Britain want to even the score. Republican and Democratic congressional leaders are pressuring the Biden Administration to authorize Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia with American-made Army Tactical Missile Systems. Britain reportedly has authorized Ukraine to hit Russia with British-made Storm Shadow missiles.

“We’re working that out right now,” President Biden told reporters this week when asked about authorizing use of American missiles against targets along a 200-mile wide band of Russian territory adjoining Ukraine. On Friday, Mr. Biden and Britain’s new premier, Sir Keir Starmer, are to meet at Washington. On the agenda is a joint missile authorization for Ukraine.

Yesterday at Kyiv, a common front was on display when Secretary Blinken and his British counterpart met with President Zelensky. “We discussed long range fires,” Mr. Blinken said later in a press conference punctuated by air raid warnings. “I’m going to take that discussion back to Washington to brief the president on what I heard.”

For more than a year, permission has been withheld out of  fear that America would stumble into a direct clash with Russia. Indeed, when news of the talks came out, Russian rage was swift. “Washington and other European states are becoming parties to the war in Ukraine,” the Duma speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, posted on Telegram. “All this will lead to the fact that our country will be forced to respond using more powerful and destructive weapons to protect its citizens.”

For Washington, the straw that broke the camel’s back was Iran’s delivery last week of short-range satellite-guided ballistic missiles to Russia. Last December, Russia signed a purchase agreement with Iran. Over the summer Russia sent “dozens” of military personnel to Iran for training on the Fath-360 missile system, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

On August 29, a Russian freighter, the Olya-3, embarked on the six-day, 500 mile voyage to Russia’s Port Olya, on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, from Iran’s port of Amirabad. At Port Olya, American satellites snapped photos of port workers unloading hundreds of the 17-feet long missiles.

“We’ve warned Tehran publicly. We’ve warned Tehran privately: taking this step would be a dangerous escalation,” Mr. Blinken told reporters in London on Tuesday. Russia “will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians.”

Until now, Iran’s primary contribution to Russia’s war effort has been the sale of Shahed drones. These noisy machines that travel at a maximum speed of 115 mph. The Fath-360 tactical missiles can fly at Mach 3, carrying three times more explosives. Difficult to intercept in midair, they hit their targets at Mach 4.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, on X denied Mr. Blinken’s accusation: “Iran has NOT delivered ballistic missiles to Russia. Period. Sanctions addicts should ask themselves: how is Iran able to make & supposedly sell sophisticated arms?”

Confirmation of Iran’s missile delivery came as a British missile research group reported yesterday that Ukraine was hit four times over the last six weeks by Hwasong-11 missiles made in North Korea. The arms tracking group, Conflict Armament Research, reported that a missile that hit Kyiv on August 18 was made in 2024, indicating that North Korea is producing the missiles for Russia to use in Ukraine. 

Over the last year, North Korea shipped at least 16,500 containers of munitions and war matériel to Russia, the deputy assistant secretary of state, Robert Koepcke, said in a speech last week. During that time, Russia launched more than 65 North Korean  missiles at targets in Ukraine.

Both the Iranian and North Korean missiles are fired by truck-mounted launchers which made them harder to track  and destroy. American-made Patriot missiles can take down both kinds of missiles.

Washington’s rules of engagement for the tactical missiles have steadily loosened over the last year. Initially, they were only allowed against targets in Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, such as Crimea or the Donbas. Then, in May, when Russia launched an offensive that threatened Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, the Biden administration authorized using the tactical missiles against military targets in the Russian rearguard area.

The Kremlin says there is no suspense around a decision by Washington and London. “Most likely, of course, all these decisions have already been made,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency yesterday. The press, he added, “is simply conducting an information campaign to formalize the decision that has already been made.” 

The American tactical missiles will not be a silver bullet for Ukraine, analysts warn. In fact, authorization for wider use may be largely symbolic. Of the “several hundred” that Ukraine received over the last year, most have been used up. At home, American stocks are considered low.

Last week, at a meeting of NATO defense chiefs in Germany, Secretary Austin cited American intelligence reports indicating that more than 90 percent of Russian war jets launching glide bombs and firing missiles against Ukraine now are based at airfields at least 200 miles from Ukrainian-controlled territory. 

In response, House Republican leaders wrote a letter to Mr. Biden on Monday citing an Institute for the Study of War study that estimated that there are 200 important Russian military targets within range of Ukraine-based American tactical missiles. Ukraine’s top presidential official, Andriy Yermak appealed Tuesday on X: “We need authorization to use Western weapons against military targets on Russian territory.”

Supporters and opponents of the missiles often refer to the American tactical missiles and British Storm Shadows as ‘long range’ rockets capable of hitting ‘deep inside’ Russia. In reality, the maximum range of the tactical missiles — 190 miles — represents only 3 percent of the east-west longitude of Russia — 5,600 miles. 

For truly long range, Ukraine relies on its kamikaze drones. Often, these are no more than a GPS-guided small civilian airplane. The cockpit is stuffed with explosives.

Yesterday, air-raid sirens sounded at an air base near Murmansk. If the intruder was a Ukrainian drone, it had flown 1,250 miles from Ukraine, probably at 120 miles an hour. A Russian military blogger, “Airborne Diary,” alleged — without evidence — that the drone was launched from Norway, about 100 miles to the west.

On Tuesday, the war came home to a Moscow suburb, Ramenskoye. After flying an estimated 400 miles from Ukraine, two drones hit two apartment buildings, damaging about 20 apartments, injuring eight people and killing one woman. This was the first time a civilian death has been reported from a Ukrainian drone strike in the Moscow area.