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MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — President Joe Biden has authorized the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike even deeper inside Russia, the latest easing of limitations meant to prevent the conflict from further spiraling, according to one U.S. official and three people familiar with the matter.

The decision allowing Ukraine to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, for attacks farther into Russia comes as thousands of North Korean troops have been sent into a region along Ukraine’s northern border to help Russia retake ground and as President-elect Donald Trump has said he would bring about a swift end to the war, expressing skepticism over continued support by the United States.

The weapons are likely to be used in response to the decision by North Korea to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to one of the people. The official and the people familiar with the matter were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and many of his Western supporters have been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles, saying the U.S. ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.

Some supporters have argued that this and other U.S. constraints could cost Ukraine the war. The debate has become a source of disagreement among Ukraine’s NATO allies.

Biden had remained opposed, determined to hold the line against any escalation that he felt could draw the U.S. and other NATO members into direct conflict with Russia.

But North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to claw back land in the Kursk border region that Ukraine seized this year. The introduction of North Korean troops to the conflict comes as Moscow has seen a favorable shift in momentum. Trump has signaled that he could push Ukraine to agree to give up some land seized by Russia to find an end to the conflict.

As many as 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian assessments. U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials say North Korea also has provided Russia with significant amounts of munitions to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

Trump, who takes office in January, spoke for months as a candidate about wanting Russia’s war in Ukraine to be over, but he mostly ducked questions about whether he wanted U.S. ally Ukraine to win.

He also repeatedly slammed the Biden administration for giving Kyiv tens of billions of dollars in aid. His election victory has Ukraine’s international backers worrying that any rushed settlement would mostly benefit Putin.

America is Ukraine’s most valuable ally in the war, providing more than $56.2 billion in security assistance since Russian forces invaded in February 2022.

Worried about Russia’s response, however, the Biden administration repeatedly has delayed providing some specific advanced weapons sought by Ukraine, only agreeing under pressure from Ukraine and in consultation with allies, after long denying such a request.

That includes initially refusing Zelenskyy’s pleas for advanced tanks, Patriot air defense systems, F-16 fighter jets, among other systems.

The White House agreed in May to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS for limited strikes just across the border with Russia.

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Long, Miller and Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Will Weissert in West Palm Beach contributed to this report

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

LONDON (AP) —

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday that he has no plan to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pledged support for Ukraine as the U.K.’s top priority at this week’s G20 summit.

Speaking with reporters on the way to the meeting in Brazil, Starmer said he wouldn’t speak to Putin as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did on Friday.

The call between the two leaders, which the Kremlin said was initiated by Germany, was the first publicly announced conversation between Putin and a major head of a Western power in almost two years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the call and said it would only make Russia less isolated.

Ukraine’s allies fear that the election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has questioned U.S. aid sent to Kyiv and spoken favorably about Putin, could alter support from Washington, its biggest backer

Starmer said allies have to double down now to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

“We are coming up to the 1,000th day of this conflict on Tuesday,” Starmer said. “That’s 1,000 days of Russian aggression, 1,000 days of huge impact and sacrifice in relation to the Ukrainian people and recently we’ve seen the addition of North Korean troops working with Russians which does have serious implications.”

The U.K. has committed 12.8 billion pounds ($16.15 billion) in aid to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

POTRERILLOS, Honduras (AP) — Tropical Storm Sara on Sunday weakened to a tropical depression after making landfall in Belize, where forecasters expected heavy rain to cause flash flooding and mudslides.

The storm hit Belize after drenching the northern coast of Honduras, where it stalled since Friday, swelling rivers and trapping some people at home. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expected Sara to continue to lose strength as it moved further inland Sunday over the Yucatan Peninsula.

Portions of Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala, western Nicaragua and Mexico’s state of Quintana Roo could see up to 5 inches (13 cm) of rain, with localized totals reaching 15 inches (38 cm). The conditions “will result in areas of flash flooding, perhaps significant, along with the potential of mudslides,” according to the Hurricane Center.

Meanwhile, northern Honduras was not in the clear yet. The center expected Sara to drop up to 3 inches (8 cm) of rain there, but some areas could see the totals hit 40 inches (1 meter), with “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” still possible.

Residents of the Potrerillos community, which sits in a tropical lowland in northwest Honduras, were evacuated from their homes due to the weather system, and some sought refuge at a school-turned-shelter.

On Sunday, food, plastic bags filled with clothes, appliances and other things filled the shelter as people waited to figure out what to do next after a swollen river flooded their homes.

The community, however, already faced that dilemma. It was ravaged in November 2020, when storms Eta and Iota passed through Honduras after initially making landfall in Nicaragua as powerful Category 4 hurricanes. Northern Honduras caught the worst of the storms with torrential rains that set off flooding that displaced hundreds of thousands. Eta alone was responsible for as much as 30 inches (76 cm) of rain along the northern coast.

“This flood that just happened is small compared to that of Eta and Iota… This, here, was full of people,” resident Israel Martinez said as he pointed around the shelter were he relocated after the 2020 storms and again this weekend. “For now, there are few who are sheltered here.”

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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano contributed to this report from Mexico City.

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