President Joe Biden is showing increased willingness to let Ukraine fire Western-supplied missiles on targets deep within Russia and plans to discuss the issue with the new British Prime Minister during their meeting at the White House on Friday.
Ahead of the talks, US officials indicated that Biden is not expected to immediately approve the use of US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to strike targets deep within Russia, far from the Ukrainian border.
However, the UK has already supplied its own long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Kyiv, and France has sent similar weapons.
Their use is currently limited to within Ukraine, and any expansion would require US approval—something set to be discussed in Friday’s meeting.
Biden has long resisted requests from Ukrainian officials to lift restrictions on these weapons, but as the war drags on and Iran continues to supply Russia with ballistic missiles, the White House has engaged in intensive discussions about a potential shift in policy.
“We’re working that out right now,” Biden said when asked this week whether he would allow Ukraine to target military sites in Russia, such as airfields, missile launchers, fuel tanks, and ammunition depots.
Citing European officials, reported that Biden is nearing a decision to allow the use of long-range missiles, as long as they are not US-provided.
Within the Biden administration, the debate has split officials, with some advocating for loosening the restrictions and others concerned about the risk of escalation and the potential limited impact of such a move.
Some assessments suggest that Russia has already repositioned assets, including launch points for glide bombs—the most significant threat to Ukrainian forces in the Kursk border region—out of range of Ukraine’s long-range missiles.
On the eve of Biden’s meeting with the British prime minister, US officials reiterated that no immediate policy change is expected regarding Ukraine’s use of ATACMS.
Despite growing public pressure to allow deeper strikes into Russia, senior administration officials have stressed that such a change is unlikely to significantly alter the course of the war.
While the US has been in ongoing discussions with both Ukraine and the UK about the use of long-range missiles, US officials say the topic will not dominate Friday’s Biden-Starmer talks, despite heightened interest in recent days.
The leaders are expected to discuss a range of other issues as well, with Starmer still settling into his role after his recent election as prime minister.
For Starmer, elected after a Labour Party landslide victory in early July, the meeting provides a chance to strengthen the bilateral relationship.
He and Biden previously met at a NATO summit in Washington over the summer, shortly after Starmer’s election as prime minister.
People familiar with the matter said Starmer requested this follow-up meeting to forge ties, especially with the looming uncertainty of what the “special relationship” between the US and UK might look like after the upcoming US election.
President Biden And UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Photo: Getty Images)
No significant policy announcements are expected from these talks, according to insiders, and a decision on long-range missile use is not imminent.
However, the fact that this discussion is taking place highlights how the stalled dynamics on the battlefield are prompting Western leaders to reconsider their strategies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets within Russia could signal NATO’s direct involvement in the conflict.
“This will mean that NATO countries – the United States and European countries – are at war with Russia,” Putin said.
Top American and British diplomats traveled to Kyiv this week, where they received renewed appeals from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to permit his military to target Russian sites using long-range weapons.
US officials maintain that they continually reassess their approach based on battlefield conditions. While the US has allowed limited cross-border strikes using US-supplied weapons, it has not yet authorized longer-range attacks.
Asked about concerns over escalation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged on Wednesday that such fears are one consideration, but “certainly not the only factor, and it’s not necessarily a dispositive factor.”
Blinken noted, “From day one, as you heard me say, we have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do that as this evolves.”
The revelation that Iran has been supplying ballistic missiles to Russia has intensified the debate over Ukraine’s military capabilities, according to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, however, voiced skepticism last week about lifting restrictions, warning that targeting deeper into Russia may not be a game-changer.
“There’s no one capability that will, in and of itself, be decisive in this campaign,” Austin said at a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany.
“There are a lot of targets in Russia – a big country, obviously,” Austin noted, emphasizing that Ukraine already has significant capabilities, including unmanned aerial vehicles, to address strategic targets.
A US official explained that the Defense Department has a limited stockpile of long-range missile systems, and the administration has been encouraging Ukraine to use them judiciously, focusing on high-value targets like Crimea and Russia’s naval assets, which have seen success in recent months.
The official emphasized that these systems should not be used on less strategic targets within Russia.
Despite these hesitations, there is growing momentum in Washington to ease the restrictions.
Senior Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Chair Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, have argued for loosening the restrictions to give Ukraine a better chance of success.
“In light of Putin’s increasingly horrific attacks on civilian targets, it’s time to lift restrictions on the use of long-range US-provided weapons to allow Ukraine to reach high value Russian military targets,” Shaheen said.
Earlier in the week, the bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus urged Biden to permit strikes deeper inside Russia with long-range weapons.
They argued that without lifting these restrictions, Ukraine would continue to face difficulties in achieving victory, prolonging the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
A group of House Republicans also pressed Biden to ease the restrictions in a letter on Monday.
Separately, 17 former national security officials, including former US ambassadors to Ukraine and top military commanders, called on Blinken and Lammy to act quickly. “A change in policy cannot come soon enough,” they wrote.
