US reaffirms stance on Ukraine's use of long-range missiles ahead of Biden-Starmer meeting

The White House said Friday that the United States is not planning to announce any new policy on Ukraine and the use of long-range missiles. The statement comes ahead of scheduled meetings between President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Friday, as well as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later this month.

”There is no change to our view on the provision of long-range strike capabilities for Ukraine to use inside of Russia,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters. ”I would not expect any major announcement in that regard,” from discussions between U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday, Kirby said.

Ukraine is pushing for permission from its Western partners to use the long-range missiles they have provided to strike targets deep inside Russia, as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.

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Kirby said that the US was taking seriously Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning he would consider the West directly involved in the conflict if Ukraine fired Western-made long-range missiles into Russia, but that it was not a new stance from Putin.

”This is not rhetoric that we haven’t heard from him before,” Kirby said. ”He has obviously proven capable of aggression…so, yeah we take these comments seriously.”

Kyiv officials argue the weapons are vital to weaken Russia’s ability to strike Ukraine and force it to move its strike capabilities further from the border.

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Russia has warned that it would consider allowing such long-range strikes an act of war, and Ukraine’s Western allies are wary of antagonizing the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows deep into Russia.