US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has given the clearest indication yet that the White House is close to lifting restrictions on the US. Ukraine on long-range weapons supplied by the West and their use against key military targets on Russian territory. Apparently, the decision has already been made privately.
Speaking in kyiv with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Blinken said Wednesday that “from day one” the United States was ready to adapt its policy to changes on the Ukrainian battlefield. “We will continue to do that,” he said. Blinken added that after the meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he and Lammy would provide reports to their “bosses,” Joe Biden and Keir Starmer.
The British Foreign Secretary has suggested that there have been changes in strategic thinking in London and Washington following news this week of the arrival of the They will send ballistic missiles to Moscow. This is a “dangerous and significant escalation,” Lammy said.
“Here, the one who is raising the bar is Putin,” he added. “Putin has led an escalation with the missiles sent from Iran; “We see a new axis formed by Russia, Iran and North Korea,” the British also said before asking China not to “entrust its fate” to “a group of renegades.”
According to British government sources, the decision to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow cruise missiles against targets in Russian territory has already been taken, but a formal announcement is not expected before Biden's meeting with Starmer in Washington on Friday.
During which a wide-ranging debate on foreign policy is expected, the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom will discuss the war in Ukraine and how to end it. Given the strategic nature of the debate, they will avoid focusing on specific weapons systems. No press conference is planned and the visit is expected to be brief. This is Starmer's second trip to the United States since becoming prime minister. Over the weekend, further negotiations could take place to brief key European allies on what was discussed in Washington.
According to sources consulted by TutorBlinken and Lammy’s joint visit to meet Zelensky in kyiv on Wednesday would not have happened without a prior positive decision on authorizing the use of Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory. But making an announcement about long-range missiles from kyiv was seen as a gratuitous provocation.
To prevent reckless or unnecessary attacks, Ukraine will most likely continue to impose restrictions on the use of missiles, with a minimum range of 190 miles. [unos 305 kilómetros]. In his speech in kyiv, Lammy said he would not reveal details of private conversations that could give Putin an advantage, denounced the Russian leader's “sinister” invasion of Ukraine and accused him personally of “greed and arrogance”. “This is imperialism, this is fascism,” he said.
Ukraine has been lobbying for months to be allowed to attack airfields, shuttles and command and control centers located on Russian territory. In statements to Tutor In May, Zelensky said Biden’s ambiguous, incremental approach had cost lives and allowed the Kremlin to “drive out” Ukrainians. “We have to respond, they don’t understand anything but force,” Zelensky said of Russia at the time. The United States should “believe in us more,” he added, calling on President Biden to overcome his constant concern about nuclear escalation.
Blinken and Lammy traveled to kyiv on an overnight train from Poland, according to a report by Lammy on the social network The aim was to reiterate his “strong support for Ukraine”. “We must confront Vladimir Putin’s imperialism, our collective security depends on it,” the tweet continued. “Horrible, atrocious, inconceivable,” Lammy said of the Russian attacks on civilians at the press conference in kyiv.
The trip to Ukraine came 24 hours after Blinken confirmed in London the shipment of deadly new ballistic missiles to Russia and from Iran. In kyiv, Blinken said the United States and Britain were firmly committed to Ukraine's “success” and “victory.”
During the joint press conference, Lammy described the UK's support for Ukraine as a “centuries-old partnership” and said the British government's new military aid package included Brimstone missiles and AS-90 self-propelled guns. “We understand that what is at stake is not just the freedom of Ukraine, but also the security of Europe and the West,” he said.
In kyiv, hopes are growing that the US and the UK will finally lift restrictions on long-range strikes. “Hoping to hear a long-awaited decision that will allow us to attack Russia with ATACMS,” Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik wrote in X. “Fingers crossed,” responded former Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk.
“This is a good thing,” Zagorodnyuk simply replied when asked whether long-range weapons would make a difference now that Russian troops are gaining ground in towns and villages in the eastern Donbass region.
Several Ukrainian officials had already expressed frustration with the new British Labour government, deploring its lack of firmness on the issue of long-range weapons and its decision to wait for the White House to change its own red lines.
Within the US government, the State Department appears to be the one most willing to grant kyiv's request, while the Pentagon and some members of the intelligence services remain skeptical.
Following a Kremlin offensive in the Kharkiv region and the city of Vovchansk, the United States in May for the first time authorized Ukraine to use weapons such as HIMARS in regions bordering Russia. [por las siglas en inglés del sistema de cohetes de artillería de alta movilidad].
Pressure on Washington
Top Democratic and Republican officials in Washington this week urged the White House to take another step. In an open letter to Biden, a group of senators called for an “immediate end” to the White House’s “limitations” on the use of long-range missiles supplied by the United States and its NATO allies. Otherwise, the letter said, Kiev “will struggle to achieve victory” and will suffer “deaths, losses and hardships” as Russia takes advantage of this policy and continues to strike Ukraine.
“We need to take the handcuffs off Ukraine and give them every advantage,” said Republican Senator Roger Wicker.
In their letter, the senators say that “advanced” Western weapons will make a difference and force Russia to defend its “rear”; and they call the White House's delays in delivering Abrams tanks, F-16s and other U.S. weapons “regrettable.”
Long-range strikes will not change the course of the war in Ukraine's favor, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week in a speech in Germany. Austin said Russia had already moved its glide bombs out of the range covered by U.S. long-range ATACMS missiles.
Austin also said that kyiv had already developed mechanisms to hit targets beyond the range covered by the Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine has used domestically produced long-range drones to attack Moscow and other locations, with increasing success. In early September, a Ukrainian attack damaged an oil refinery outside Moscow; three Moscow airports were forced to close Monday because of a drone attack; and there were reports of another drone attack Wednesday on an air base in Murmansk, in Russia’s Arctic Circle and 1,800 kilometers from Ukrainian lines.
According to Matthew Savill, head of military science at the London-based British defense think tank Rusi, Ukraine did not inform its allies in advance of the surprise August incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. “They caused a change in the narrative about escalation and the use of long-range weapons in Russia,” he said.
Savill warns that it would be “very, very difficult to take out” Russian airbases, which are “mostly piles of concrete” and are “hundreds of miles” beyond the front line. This suggests that ATACMS missiles equipped with cluster bombs would be more effective than Storm Shadows not armed with cluster bombs.
In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia would destroy any further shipments of ATACMS, the state news agency Tass reported.
Translation of Francisco de Zárate