President Biden has denied Ukraine’s request to lift restrictions on using Western-supplied weapons
US President Joe Biden said there’s no consensus within the administration on allowing Ukraine to use longer-range weapons supplied by foreign countries to attack targets deep inside Russia. This statement comes days after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky renewed his call to remove these restrictions on the use of Western-supplied arms.
Biden clarified the White House’s position just before boarding Air Force One at Berlin Brandenburg International Airport on Friday.
When asked if he’d changed his mind on the issue of Ukraine striking Russian territory, Biden replied: “Right now, there is no consensus for long-range weapons.”
A reporter then asked Biden what would need to happen for Washington to change its stance. The president responded: “I’m not going to speculate.”
Biden reaffirmed that, despite denying Zelensky’s request, Washington would continue supporting Kyiv. “We’re going to stay with Ukraine. We’re going to make sure they continue to have capabilities,” he told reporters.
This statement comes two days after the US announced a new $425 million military aid package for Ukraine. The package includes additional anti-air and anti-tank missiles, as well as artillery shells.
In his “victory plan” presented to Ukrainian lawmakers this week, Zelensky renewed his call to allow the use of longer-range weapons “on the whole Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia and on the territory of Russia” and asked foreign partners to provide Kyiv with “appropriate” missiles and drones. Ukraine had previously submitted a revised list of proposed targets for the US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
So far, Washington has refused to authorize the use of ATACMS for targets far inside Russia. Last month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin argued that this change would not “be decisive in this campaign.”
Moscow, for its part, has warned that increased military aid to Kyiv would trigger a new wave of dangerous escalation. In September, President Vladimir Putin said a decision to greenlight the use of longer-range weapons would mean that NATO countries would be “at war with Russia.”