From heavy artillery to fighter jets, each shift by the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with more potent weaponry has traced a similar path. Months of soul-searching about possible Russian escalation are followed by a belated go-ahead. So it is with Washington’s consent for Kyiv to launch strikes into Russia using US-made long-range missiles. This is welcome — but would have been better if it had come sooner, and with fewer restrictions; permission reportedly extends, for now, only to the Ukrainian-occupied Kursk region of Russia. It should also be only one element of a broader effort by America and its allies to bolster Ukraine’s position on the battlefield before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president.
从重型火炮到战斗机，拜登(Biden)政府每一次向乌克兰提供更强大武器的转变都遵循着相似的轨迹。在对俄罗斯可能采取的升级行动进行了数月的反思之后，拜登政府才会姗姗来迟地部署下一步行动。因此，基辅方面使用美制远程导弹对俄罗斯发动打击，是经过华盛顿方面同意的。这值得欢迎——但如果能更早批准并减少限制就更好了；据报道，目前的批准范围只包括乌克兰占领的俄罗斯库尔斯克州。这也应该只是美国及其盟国在唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)就任总统之前，为加强乌克兰战场地位所做的更广泛努力的一部分。