On Thursday, President Joe Biden dismissed requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to remove restrictions and permit Kyiv to use U.S. weaponry for strikes deep within Russian territory.
“If he had the capacity to strike Moscow, strike the Kremlin, would that make sense? It wouldn’t,” Biden said regarding Zelenskyy, as reported by The Hill. “The question is: What is the best use of the weaponry he has?”
“I got him more long-range capacity, as well as defensive capacity. I’m following the advice of the chief of staff of the military, the secretary of defense, and my intelligence people. And we’re making a day-to-day basis on how far they should go in. That’s a logical thing to do.”
During the closing hours of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., Zelenskyy stated, “If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations,” according to The Hill.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has consistently opposed Ukraine using any of its weapons to strike inside Russian borders, concerned that such actions could escalate tensions and provoke a wider conflict with Moscow.
However, in May, Biden partially relaxed these restrictions to assist Ukraine in defending Kharkiv, its second-largest city, located just 12 miles from the Russian border.
This week, Great Britain announced it would permit Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with British-provided long-range missiles. NATO has supported Ukraine’s desire for more freedom in using Western-supplied weapons, though countries like Germany have remained cautious, following the U.S.’s stance, according to The Hill.
“There has been a clear decision, and the American president has said it again and again, that the weapons should not be used outside Ukrainian territory,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz commented after the NATO summit. “We have made a small adjustment with regard to attacks that have been started in the immediate vicinity of Kharkiv on Russian territory.”
“It remains our task to make sure that we support Ukraine to the maximum, but that we don’t want an escalation between Russia and NATO. This requires us to be wise and to be clear,” Scholz added.
{Matzav.com}