Trump slams WSJ report on easing Ukraine arms curbs as 'fake news'
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The WSJ has reported that Trump lifted key restrictions on Ukraine using Storm Shadow missiles in Russia strikes, enabling long-range cross-border attacks.
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Visitors watch a Storm Shadow air-launched long-range missile by MBDA is displayed at the Paris Air Show, on Monday, June 16, 2025, in Le Bourget, north of Paris. (AP)
US President Donald Trump slammed a Wall Street Journal report on Washington easing restrictions on Ukraine's use of long-range Western arms as "fake news".
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, that Donald Trump's administration lifted a significant restriction on Ukraine using some long-range missiles in strikes on Russia, increasing pressure on Moscow.
"The Wall Street Journal story on the U.S.A.’s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia is FAKE NEWS!" Trump said in a Truth Social post.
"The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!" he added.
However, based on an announcement from the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces on social media, Ukraine used a British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missile on Tuesday to strike a Russian plant in Bryansk that produced explosives and rocket fuel, a strike it called a “successful hit".
The unannounced US move to enable Kiev to use the missile in Russia was, according to the WSJ, recently transferred from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon to the top US general in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who also serves as NATO commander.
The shift coincided with an early October push by President Trump to pressure the Kremlin into talks to end the war, a strategy that included the possibility of approving US-made Tomahawk missiles for Kiev, though Trump has since backed off from that proposal.
Ukraine expected to use Storm Shadow in more attacks
The WSJ's report conveyed US officials' expectation that Ukraine would conduct more cross-border attacks using the Storm Shadow missile, which is launched from Ukrainian aircraft and can travel more than 180 miles, a capability the US can restrict because the missiles rely on American targeting data.
While Ukraine’s renewed use of Storm Shadows isn’t a game-changer on the battlefield, having a far shorter range than US Tomahawks and having been used to strike targets in Russia before, the missiles do enable Kiev to expand its attacks inside Russia, the WSJ continued.
“This is a war that never would have happened had President Trump been President, something President Putin himself acknowledged, and President Trump is trying to get it stopped. The President also negotiated a historic agreement to allow NATO allies to purchase American-made weapons," one US official stated, as quoted by the WSJ.
Former President Joe Biden approved Ukraine's use of Storm Shadow and US ATACMS missiles against Russian targets toward the end of his administration. After Trump took office, the Pentagon established a review procedure for approving cross-border strikes that use US missiles or other weapons, including the Storm Shadow, which rely on US targeting data.
Under a mechanism that gave the defense secretary final say over whether Ukraine could employ Western long-range weapons to strike Russia, no attacks were approved until recently, when the authority for approving such attacks was returned to European Command, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two US officials.
