Politico: Ukraine will give the US a list of targets in Russia that it wants to hit with long-range weapons

Ukraine will present to the Administration of US President Joe Biden a list of targets on the territory of Russia that it could hit with American long-range weapons. This is the latest attempt to convince Washington to lift the restrictions.

Politico writes about this with reference to sources.

Although Ukraine provided the US with a list of some potential targets in Russia earlier, this one will be more detailed. According to three interlocutors of the publication, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umyerov and the head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak will visit Washington this week and submit a new list to the American side.

The US has believed for months that lifting restrictions on long-range strikes would have no strategic value in the war because Russia has moved its most important targets, including aircraft, away from the border and made them unreachable for strikes.

However, Kyiv has identified several important targets that Ukraine will be able to hit with the help of American missiles. So the hope is that the new list of targets will force President Biden to change his mind.

Ukraine insists that lifting all restrictions is necessary because it will give the military more freedom to fight Russia within its borders. However, high-ranking US officials fear that lifting the restrictions will lead to escalation and provoke the Russian Federation to even more aggressive attacks on Ukraine.

Unnamed Ukrainian lawmakers and officials say they see signs that some in the Biden administration are considering lifting the restrictions in the coming days. A Democratic lawmaker also told Politico that the U.S. is considering Kyivʼs request. The White House has not officially announced a change in its policy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Russiaʼs largest air attack on August 26, said that Ukraineʼs allies should lift all restrictions on the use of weapons.

• Earlier, Politico, citing sources, wrote that the US does not lift restrictions on long-range strikes against the Russian Federation in order to have the opportunity to improve relations with Moscow in the future.
• Ukraine received permits to use the transferred weapons at its own discretion from a number of partners, although not from all. The Times publication, citing sources in the British government, wrote that Great Britain cannot allow Ukraine to hit Russia with long-range Storm Shadow missiles due to the resistance of the United States — Joe Bidenʼs administration is allegedly afraid of escalation.