Pressure mounts for use of US weapons against Russia
Ukraine’s daring ground offensive has taken the fight to Russia, but not nearly as much as its leaders would like because, they say, the US won’t let them.
The US restricts the use of longrange ballistic missiles it provides to Ukraine, which wants to aim them at military targets inside Russia.
Ukraine’s offensive, along with a barrage of drones and missiles that Moscow launched this week, has intensified pressure on the Biden administration to ease its cautious approach to the use of Western weapons in escalating Ukrainian attacks.
The Biden administration says its careful deliberations, including which advanced weapons it supplies to Ukraine and when, are necessary to avoid provoking retaliation from Russian president Vladimir Putin. Some analysts agree Putin would take a Ukrainian strike by an American longrange ballistic missile as an attack by the US itself.
But other US and European supporters of Ukraine say the White House should see that Putin’s threats of attacking the West, including with nuclear weapons, are bluster. Their fear is the US support that has allowed Ukraine to withstand Russia’s 2022 invasion comes with delays and caveats that could ultimately contribute to its defeat.
“This war is going to end exactly how Western policymakers decide it will end,’’ said Philip Breedlove, a retired US general who led Nato in Europe from 2013 to 2016 and is among the retired US military leaders and diplomats, Republican lawmakers, security analysts and others pushing for a loosening of restrictions on how Ukraine uses Western weapons.
“If we keep doing what we’re doing, Ukraine will eventually lose,” Mr Breedlove said. “Because right now ... we are purposely not giving Ukraine what they need to win.”
Lifting such restrictions “would strengthen Ukrainian self-defense, save lives and reduce destruction in Ukraine,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell wrote on X this Monday after Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine. The next day, Russia launched 91 more.
The push and pull is playing out during Ukraine’s surprise offensive into Russia’s southern Kursk region, the first ground invasion of Russia since World War II.
The Biden administration condemned Russia’s attacks this week and is helping bolster its ally’s air defenses, but has not changed its policy on long-range weapons, national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week.