By Steve Holland and Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States will provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets within Russia, two officials told Reuters on Wednesday, as it weighs whether to send Kyiv missiles that could be used in such strikes.
The U.S. is also asking NATO allies to provide similar support, the U.S. officials said, confirming details first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The decision represents the first known policy change that President Donald Trump has signed off on since hardening his rhetoric toward Russia in recent weeks in an attempt to end Moscow's more than three-year-long war in neighboring Ukraine.
Washington has long-been sharing intelligence with Kyiv, but the Wall Street Journal said it will now be easier for Ukraine to hit infrastructure like refineries, pipelines and power plants with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of revenue and oil.
Trump has been pressing European countries to stop buying Russian oil in exchange for his agreement to impose tough sanctions on Moscow in a bid to try to dry up funding for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Neither the White House nor Ukraine's mission to the United Nations immediately responded to separate requests for comment from Reuters. Russia's U.N. mission in New York declined to comment.
TOMAHAWKS
The move comes as the United States also considers a Ukrainian request to obtain Tomahawks, which have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles) - easily enough to hit Moscow and most of European Russia if fired from Ukraine.
Ukraine has also developed its own long-range missile named the Flamingo, but quantities are unknown as the missile is in early production.
According to U.S. officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, the approval for additional intelligence came shortly before Trump posted on social media last week suggesting that Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia, in a striking rhetorical shift in Kyiv's favor.
"After seeing the Economic trouble (the war) is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form," Trump wrote on Truth Social last Tuesday, shortly after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
'SPECIAL KIND OF POLITICIAN'
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calling it a "special military operation" to halt Kyiv's Westward geopolitical drift and what it considers to be a dangerous NATO expansion to the east.
Kyiv and European allies consider the invasion to be an imperial-style land grab.
Trump began his second term as president in January, vowing to quickly end the war in Ukraine.
"President Trump is a special kind of politician. He likes quick fixes and this is a situation where quick fixes do not work," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said earlier on Wednesday during a press conference to mark the start of Russia's October presidency of the U.N. Security Council.
Nebenzia also cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that if the U.S. decided to supply Ukraine with tomahawks "it will not change the situation on the battlefield."
ENERGY REVENUE
This is the first time the United States will provide assistance with Ukrainian long-range strikes deep into Russian territory on energy targets, officials told the Wall Street Journal.
Energy revenue remains the Kremlin’s single most important source of cash to finance the war effort, making oil and gas exports a central target of Western sanctions.
Trump has taken steps to impose an additional tariff on imports from India to pressure New Delhi to halt its purchases of discounted Russian crude oil, and lobbied the likes of Turkey to stop buying oil from Moscow too.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Group of Seven nations' finance ministers said they will take joint steps to increase pressure on Russia by targeting those who are continuing to increase their purchases of Russian oil and those that are facilitating circumvention.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols and Abu Sultan; writing by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Coates)
