While US restricts long-range missile use, Ukraine builds its own 

The United States is, once again, stopping Ukraine from attacking Russia with certain weapons

In President Donald Trump's own words, it is very hard, if not impossible

to win a war without attacking an invader's country. Reporters at the Wall Street Journal broke the story. According to the outlet

the U.S. implemented new approval procedures in the spring for when Ukraine wanted to use the

Army's tactical missiles, or ATAKIMs, to hit targets deep behind the front lines in Russian

territory. The new rules for ATAKIMs' use in Ukraine effectively reversed former President

Joe Biden's decision, which came late in his presidency, to allow Ukraine to use ATAKIMs

missiles on Russian targets deep behind enemy lines. The Atakim missile has a published range of around 190 miles The new approval process was put in place by Elbridge Colby the Pentagon Undersecretary for Policy

and essentially gives the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, final say about Ukraine's use of ATACOMs

Now, the last batch of ATACOMs approved during Biden's tenure was delivered to Ukraine this spring

We don't really know how many ATACOMs Ukraine has left, but it's thought to be a pretty small supply

However, the Pentagon's new deep strike approval process also applies to European-supplied weaponry

that relies on U.S. satellite intelligence for targeting, things like storm-shadow missiles

Just last week, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account

about Ukraine not being able to win without attacking Russia, And he criticized President Biden for only ever allowing Ukraine to defend itself not fight back Some administration officials are trying to clarify that statement now saying it does not mean the United States is going to change the new deep strike approval process

but leaving the door open for President Trump to change or amend the process if he so decides

Like we said earlier, this is not the first time the U.S. put restrictions on Ukraine using

American-made weapons in general, or even ATAKIMs specifically. The war was raging for about a year

and a half before Biden approved sending ATAKIMs to Ukraine, and it was even longer before Ukraine

was allowed to use the long-range variants of the missiles. While U.S. systems are certainly among

the most powerful in Ukraine's arsenal, they are not the only long-range strike options

Ukraine is experiencing quite a bit of success with some slower moving fixed-wing drones

There are plenty of Russian oil facilities that can attest to that Ukraine is also ramping up production of the FP Kiev version of the Iranian Shahed one attack drones Both of those options

are slower moving, though, and are somewhat limited in terms of payload. The newly announced

Flamingo long-range cruise missile does not have either of those problems. It was domestically

developed by Ukrainian-based startup Firepoint in about nine months. The Flamingo weighs six tons

at takeoff. During some recent test launches, it proved it can carry a 2,500-pound warhead

and hit targets at around 1,800 miles away. The Flamingo is in serial production now

with Firepoint eventually aiming to put out about 200 or so a month. Munitions which can hit

hardened targets in Russia without the need for U.S. coordination or approval

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