The United States will provide Ukraine with intelligence support for long-range missile strikes against energy infrastructure inside Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported on October 1, quoting US government sources. 

This would be the first time Washington has directly backed attacks deep into Russian territory as President Donald Trump sharpens his stance toward Moscow. While the US has supplied Kyiv with battlefield intelligence since Russia’s 2022 invasion, it has until now avoided enabling strikes far beyond the front lines for fear of escalation with Moscow.

US intelligence is expected to make it easier for Ukraine to target Russian energy facilities, including refineries, pipelines and power plants. 

As bne IntelliNews previously reported, with Kyiv rapidly running out of money following the withdrawal of US support since Trump took office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken matters into his own hands: if the West cannot effectively cut Russia’s oil exports, Ukraine has begun to use its long-range drones and new cruise missiles to target Russian refineries, reducing throughput by some 20% since August and causing a fuel crisis in some Russia's regions.

Trump, meanwhile, has adopted increasingly confrontational rhetoric toward Russia after initially pushing what he called a “minerals diplomacy” approach. 

In recent weeks, he has urged European allies to cut oil purchases from Russia in return for his support for tougher sanctions. 

Alongside the intelligence support, Washington is understood to be weighing whether to supply Ukraine with long-range US missiles, including Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometres. If approved, the weapons would allow Kyiv to strike strategic targets across much of European Russia, including Moscow.

Ukraine has also begun producing low-cost drones and a domestically developed long-range missile, the Flamingo.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a press briefing on October 2 that Moscow will respond "appropriately" if Tomahawks are sent to Ukraine, Russian newswire TASS reported. 

At the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month, Trump told world leaders that he now believed Ukraine could fully restore its territorial integrity if Nato allies provided sufficient US-made weapons, as bne IntelliNews reported.

He described Russia as a “paper tiger” and urged European capitals to bear more of the financial burden.

Trump also wrote on his Truth Social platform that Ukraine “could retake all its land occupied by Russia”, a striking reversal from his earlier reluctance to commit to Kyiv’s war aims.

The shift appears to reflect Trump’s recognition that efforts to resolve the conflict through economic deals with Moscow – particularly focused on energy and mining rights – have stalled.

Trump had previously pressed Ukraine to agree to grant access to US firms in exchange for limited security guarantees, a move criticised in Kyiv as one-sided.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. More than three and a half years later, fighting has settled into a grinding conflict with heavy casualties on both sides.

Russia has been ramping up its military production, and is now producing more arms and ammo than it needs to perpetrate the war in Ukraine, the Kiel Institute reported at the end of September. All the main arms categories – tanks, military vehicles, artillery and drones – have seen production increase by almost 200% or more since the war began in 2022.