Biden says the US is working to lift restrictions on long-range weapons for Ukraine

Author:
Olha Bereziuk
Date:

The administration of US President Joe Biden is currently working on the issue of lifting restrictions on Ukraineʼs use of long-range weapons in the war against Russia.

Biden said this in a comment to reporters, Reuters reports.

Responding to a journalistʼs question whether the United States will lift restrictions, the American president said that his team is "working on it now."

The day before, on October 10, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Biden plans to discuss the issue of lifting restrictions with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a meeting on September 13.

Ban on attacks of Ukraine deep into Russia by the US and British weapons

Ukraine has long been asking its allies to allow their weapons to be used for long-range strikes deep into Russia. For such purposes, Ukraineʼs arsenal includes, in particular, American ATACMS surface-to-surface long-range missiles and British Storm Shadow long-range missiles.

However, none of these countries gave Ukraine permission to use their weapons for attacks deep into the Russian Federation. The US fears a possible escalation against the background of this decision. They also believe that lifting restrictions on long-range strikes will have no strategic significance in the war, because Russia has moved its most important targets, including aircraft, away from the border and made them inaccessible for strikes.

And Great Britain, in turn, cannot allow such strikes to Ukraine due to resistance from the United States.

Politico also wrote that the US is not lifting restrictions on long-range strikes against the Russian Federation in order to be able to improve relations with Moscow in the future.