Ukraine plans to ramp up pressure on the Biden administration during the NATO Summit this week to lift all restrictions on using American-supplied weapons in Russian territory.
In particular, Ukrainian officials want the Biden administration to allow Kyiv to use longer-range Army Tactical Missile Systems to hit inside Russia, Andriy Yermak, top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday. Ukraine is already using the weapons in Crimea — but it wants the U.S. to sign off on Kyiv launching them from other areas.
If the White House approves the change, it would erase one of the administration’s final remaining red lines on the Ukraine war.
The pressure campaign comes after a missile hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday. Ukrainian, American and European officials believe the missile was Russian — though they are divided on whether the strike was intentional.
The U.S. in May gave Ukraine limited permission to fire U.S.-supplied weapons into Russia, but only in the area of Kharkiv and only so it could hit Russian forces just over the border if they were preparing to strike Ukraine. The White House made clear they were not allowed to launch long-range missiles to hit military targets deep inside Russia.
Ukraine has asked the White House to lift the long-range missile restrictions for months — in multiple meetings and in phone calls with senior leaders of the administration, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy’s office said. But the U.S. has held off, fearful that a strike deep inside Russia would provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin to escalate the war.
Ukraine believes those fears, though valid, should not trump the need to provide Ukraine with the leeway to strike back at Russia, Yermak said.
Yermak said he plans on bringing the issue up again this week in his meetings with the administration, adding that it may take some more time for the U.S. to agree.
“If you’re good friends, it doesn’t mean that you are in the same position on everything,” Yermak said, adding that Ukraine also needs more details from the Biden administration on how many weapons it plans to provide in the coming months, as well as their expected date of delivery.
“We have this package,” Yermak said, referring to the funding passed by Congress in April. “But unfortunately it’s the delivery — it is still delayed. We need more. It is necessary to move faster.”
