President Zelensky has been calling for this moment for months. When it finally happened, he was a little shy.

Strikes are not carried out with words, he declared in his evening speech: “Such things are not announced, the missiles speak for themselves.”

President Biden authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles provided by Washington to strike deep inside Russia.

We think that initially Ukraine’s use of the army’s tactical missile system – known by its acronym ATACMS – will be limited to defending Ukrainian troops who still hold a small part of Russian territory in the Kursk region.

A major Russian counter-offensive is expected there within a few days, with the help of 10,000 North Korean soldiers.

The use of missiles, capable of targeting military installations deep inside Russia, could complicate Russia’s efforts, allowing Ukraine to retain this valuable bargaining chip ahead of possible peace talks there. next year.

Ukrainian military experts welcomed Washington’s decision, saying it will not necessarily change the course of the war, but will restore some balance.

This comes at a time when Russian forces are advancing along the Eastern Front and Ukraine has felt behind for several months.

“Ukrainians are very inspired by this news,” said Major Volodymyr Omelyan of the Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Putin has already warned that such a move by the United States would amount to direct participation of NATO countries in the war – but Maj Omelyan said it was simply a “bluff”.

“We will not pay any attention to it,” he told the BBC World Service, because Russia had issued similar warnings about “many other systems and weapons that we have received.”

“Nothing happened. Nothing will happen this time either.

The former government minister added that Ukraine needed similar permission to use Storm Shadow missiles, manufactured by Great Britain and France.

Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun said Ukrainians were “happy that this decision was made” and that it would make a “huge difference”.

But she said there was discontent “because it took Biden so long to make a decision that could have saved lives” if it had been made sooner.

“I wish this had been achieved before Putin destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,” she said.

What we don’t know are the details of Washington’s decision. We do not know how many systems Ukraine has.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, MP from Odessa, stressed that Ukraine needs a sufficient number of missiles for Washington’s decision to be taken into account.

“It’s very important to have not only authorization but also missiles – to be able… to make a difference in the situation.”

He added that it was “a shame” that the decision “took almost 1,000 days”, adding that it was “better late than never”.

We don’t know what the Americans say about what Ukraine can or cannot do with missiles. It will also be seen whether Ukraine will be allowed to use the missiles more widely in the future.

But another Ukrainian lawmaker, Maria Ionova, stressed that missiles were “not the silver bullet.”

She said there was a need to focus on a change in strategy.

“Because our enemies are united – and we must be united too. »

This is important progress ahead of another long and harsh winter.

But Russian missile and drone attacks on Sundaywhich killed up to 20 people, served as a stark reminder that Moscow is still determined to win the war, on its terms.