The White House has confirmed the lifting of restrictions on Ukrainian forces to conduct deeper strikes into Russia using ATACMS missiles.

The White House's Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby confirmed that the United States has granted permission for Kyiv to use American-made long-range ATACMS missiles to strike deep within Russian territory.

“They are now able to use ATACMS for self-defense if necessary. And currently, for understandable reasons, this is happening in the Kursk area,” he stated.

“I would allow the Ukrainians to explain how they are utilizing the ATACMS systems and targeting procedures, what they are being used for, and how effectively they are working,” he added.

Last Tuesday, Ukraine launched an attack on the Bryansk region with six American-made ATACMS missiles, and the following day, British Storm Shadow systems and American HIMARS were used to hit targets in the Kursk region.

On Thursday, Putin stated in his televised address that in response to the permission granted by the U.S. and their NATO allies to use long-range weapons against Russian territory, Moscow struck a missile factory in Dnipro with a non-nuclear hypersonic ballistic missile called "Oreshnik."

Ukraine first used ATACMS to strike a weapons depot near Bryansk on November 19. This was confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense and Putin, who claimed that there were “no casualties or serious damage.” However, according to the Pentagon, Russia was able to intercept only two out of the eight ATACMS launched.

Putin also stated that on November 21, the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck the "Sever" command post in the Kursk region with British Storm Shadow missiles. According to the Telegram channel "Dossier of the Spy," the command post was located in Maryino, and the Ukrainian forces attacked it using Storm Shadow on November 20, resulting in 18 military personnel being killed and another 33 wounded with varying degrees of severity.

Sources from the outlet noted that most of the casualties were Russian officers, and among the injured were three North Korean soldiers. At the time of the strike, Lieutenant General Valery Solodchuk was also present at the site. Ukrainian sources reported his death, but the Russians deny this.