Trump denies U.S. approved long-range missile strikes inside Russia

U.S. President Donald Trump denied reports that Washington had authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory, calling a Wall Street Journal article on the issue “fake.”

“The story by The Wall Street Journal claiming that the U.S. supposedly allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles deep inside Russia is FAKE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added that the United States had “nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they came from or whatever Ukraine does with them.”

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration had lifted key restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied long-range missiles, including Storm Shadow systems, to increase pressure on the Kremlin. The newspaper said the decision was made before Trump’s Oct. 17 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

According to the report, Ukraine used a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile on Oct. 21 to strike a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region.