Amid nuclear war threat, Zelenskyy says strikes inside Russia with US missiles key to ending war

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to carry out long-range strikes inside Russia with US-supplied weapons, and to earn “a place in history” by “strengthening Ukraine” before he leaves office.

Speaking before a crucial trip next week to Washington, where he will meet Biden and the US vice-president and Democrat presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, Zelenskyy said he would present a “victory plan” to end the war.

His vision for a “just peace” has not been made public. But in a media briefing with the Observer in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said it involved carrying out deep strikes with western missiles inside Russia – something London and Washington have so far refused, Guardian reported.

Zelenskyy’s comments come just two days after Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned Western governments on Thursday that a nuclear war would ensue if they gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

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His message was entitled “For those who didn’t get it the first time” - an apparent reference to a warning by Putin last week that the West would be directly fighting Russia if it let Ukraine fire the long-range missiles onto Russian territory.

In a non-binding resolution adopted on Thursday, the European Parliament asked EU countries to “immediately lift restrictions on the use of Western weapons systems delivered to Ukraine against legitimate military targets on Russian territory.”

The UK has indicated it is willing to allow Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow cruise missiles. But the White House remains sceptical. The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, failed to resolve the issue when he held private talks last week with Biden in Washington.

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Zelenskyy confirmed no green light had been given, despite months of high-level lobbying. “Neither the US nor UK has allowed us to use these weapons on the territory of Russia, against any targets and at any distance,” he said.

He said Europeans should understand that it would take Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, known in the West as Satan II, just 3 minutes and 20 seconds to strike Strasbourg, where the European Parliament meets.

With inputs from agencies