Urgent! US must authorize Ukraine to use long-range missiles

The decision could be announced after discussions between Biden and allies at the UN General Assembly, amid growing pressure to expand military support for Ukraine as Putin threatens NATO.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer left Washington after talks with President Joe Biden on Friday (13), amid signs that the United States may be about to reconsider its stance on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles in the coming days. According to the Financial Times, although the meeting between the two leaders ended without an official announcement, there have been indications that Biden may be willing to allow the UK and France to authorise Ukraine to use its Storm Shadow missileswhich rely on American navigation data and other technologies.

“It wasn’t a specific decision… obviously, we’re going to resume [esse assunto] [na Assembleia Geral da ONU] in just a few days with a larger group of people,” Starmer told reporters after the meeting. Some officials predicted that Washington would eventually allow Ukraine to use the US-supplied, ground-launched Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).

The United States has so far been reluctant to provide such weapons, despite repeated pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fearing that sending them could further escalate the conflict with Russia. “There is no change in our view on providing long-range strike capabilities for Ukraine to use inside Russia, and I would not expect any kind of major announcement on that to come out of the discussions,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said ahead of Friday’s summit. However, Washington has on other occasions supplied Ukraine with weapons it had previously said it would not send, and there is pressure within the Biden administration to give Kiev access to the missiles.

Ahead of his meeting with Starmer, Biden reaffirmed US support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. “The United States is committed to standing with you to help Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s onslaught of aggression. It is clear that [o presidente russo Vladimir] Putin will not win this war. The people of Ukraine will prevail,” Biden said.

Earlier on Friday, Lord Kim Darroch, Britain’s former national security adviser, warned that allowing Ukraine to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles against Russia could escalate the conflict. Darroch, a former British ambassador to Washington, suggested that Western allies should carefully consider warnings from Putin this week that using long-range weapons against targets on Russian soil would be interpreted as NATO being “at war” with Moscow. “We really don’t want to escalate that,” Darroch told the Financial Times.

Asked about Putin’s threats, Biden said on Friday: “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.” Starmer also said it was up to Ukraine to decide how to use weapons provided by its allies — including Anglo-French Storm Shadow cruise missiles — as long as they were used defensively and in accordance with international law.

On the other hand, Darroch warned that while Putin has yet to follow through on his threats of retaliation when the West supplied main battle tanks and missiles to Ukraine, that does not mean the same would apply to cruise missile strikes on Russian territory. “If they are confident he is bluffing, then fine,” Darroch said. “But he is bluffing until he is no longer bluffing.”

Darroch also said he was not convinced that using Storm Shadow missiles to strike targets in Russia would be a turning point in the war. Meanwhile, Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, warned on Friday that if the West allowed Kiev to conduct strikes on Russian soil, NATO countries would be “entering a direct war with Russia.” “The facts are that NATO will be directly involved in hostilities against a nuclear power,” Nebenzia told the UN Security Council. “I think you should not forget that and think about the consequences.”

A final decision on whether to allow Ukraine to expand its military operations on Russian territory will likely be taken at a meeting of the UN General Assembly later this month, according to British diplomats. Starmer and Biden are expected to be in New York for that meeting, along with other Western allies and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy has been lobbying Western allies hard for permission to use ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia. “Anyone who sees a map of where Russia launches its strikes, trains its forces, maintains its reserves, locates its military facilities and organizes its logistics clearly understands why Ukraine needs long-range capabilities,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.

Britain was the first country to send long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine and has long taken a more flexible approach to how the weapons it supplies are used. Defence experts say Britain would like to apply the same approach to Storm Shadows – if a deal can be reached with the other countries backing Kiev.