US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed their steadfast support for Ukraine at a meeting in Washington on September 13.
This is stated on the website of the White House.
Biden and Starmer discussed in depth a number of foreign policy issues of mutual interest. In particular, they expressed "deep concern" over Iran and North Koreaʼs transfer of lethal weapons to Russia and Chinaʼs support for Russiaʼs defense and industrial base. At the same time, after the results of the meeting, they did not publicly announce the permission for Ukraine to use the weapons of the United States and Britain deep into the Russian Federation, as the Western media wrote about it.
After the negotiations, Starmer noted that "this was not a meeting about a specific opportunity," and hinted that further developments should be expected after the UN General Assembly meeting at the end of September.
"Weʼve come to a strong position," he said, according to Politico.
One of the important topics of conversation was the war in the Middle East. The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to Israelʼs security, the urgent need for a cease-fire agreement that would free the hostages and allow for increased aid to Gaza, and the need for Israel to do more to protect civilians and address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
They also condemned Iranian-backed Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
White House National Security Adviser John Kirby said earlier that the US does not plan to announce any new policy regarding Ukraineʼs use of long-range Western weapons. Kirby added that the White House "took seriously" Russian leader Vladimir Putinʼs warning that authorizing long-range strikes would "directly involve" NATO in a war against Russia.
Ban on attacks of Ukraine deep into Russia with Western 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.
At the same time, Great Britain 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.
However, this week the issue of lifting this ban was raised during the visit to Kyiv by the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the head of the British Foreign Ministry David Lammy.