The US State Department, under the leadership of Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, is working on a proposal to loosen the ban on Ukraine striking targets on the territory of the Russian Federation with American weapons, reports Eurointegration.
This is reported by The New York Times.
According to the publication, Joe Biden’s administration is currently debating whether to relax the ban to allow Ukrainians to hit missile and artillery launchers located directly under the border with Russia.
The proposal, which Blinken insisted on after a sobering visit to Kyiv last week, is still in the formative stages. And it is also unclear how many of his colleagues from Biden’s closest circle signed up for it.
Officials said, the document has not yet been formally presented to the president, who is traditionally the most cautious.
In addition, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to comment on internal discussions about Ukrainian policy, as well as Blinken’s report after his return from Kyiv.
According to the publication, officials involved in the discussions on the matter are reported to have said that Blinken’s position had changed as the Russians opened a new front in the war, leading to devastating consequences.
“Moscow’s forces have placed weapons right across the border from northeastern Ukraine, and aimed them at Kharkiv — knowing the Ukrainians would only be able to use non-American drones and other weaponry to target them in response”, — noted in the publication.
Pressure is also mounting on the United States to help Ukraine attack Russian military targets, even as Washington wants to maintain its ban on attacks on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure with US-supplied weapons.
At the same time, Britain, which usually supports a war strategy with Washington, has quietly lifted its own restrictions so that its “Storm Shadow” cruise systems can be used to target Russia more broadly.
NYT noted that the United States is now considering training Ukrainian troops inside the country, rather than sending them to a training ground in Germany. That would require putting American military personnel in Ukraine, something else that Mr. Biden has prohibited until now.
