A salvo of HIMARS rockets fired during a live-fire exercise. HIMARS is one of the most sophisticated US weapons sent to Ukraine. Photo by FADEL SENNA.
White House officials have reportedly begun discussing easing the restrictions imposed on US-made weapons supplied to Ukraine.
This as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues to press the administration to allow Kyiv to use American weapons to strike targets in Russia.
Since Washington made its first shipments of military assets to Ukraine, President Joe Biden has strictly prohibited the war-torn nation from using them to fire deep into enemy territory to avoid further escalation.
But officials involved in the deliberations told The New York Times that there has been an apparent change in consensus because of how the Russians are gaining the upper hand in Ukraine.
The proposed lifting of restrictions is reportedly still in the formative stages, as it remains unclear how many will support it.
It has also not been formally presented to the president.
The US remains Ukraine’s most important backer, having sent more than $107 billion in military aid to bolster its defenses.
However, Washington has not faltered in its stance of prohibiting Kyiv from using its long-range missiles to carry out strikes across the border.
The war-torn nation is only allowed to use the HIMARS and other US-made assets to strike targets as far as Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.
But for Russian military analyst George Barros from the Institute for the Study of War, these restrictions have been causing Kyiv to fight with one hand tied behind its back.
“US policy has effectively created a vast sanctuary in which Russia has been able to amass its ground invasion force and from which it is launching glide bombs and other long-range strike systems in support of its renewed invasion,” he said.
Pressure is mounting on the US as other Ukraine backers have quietly agreed to allow their long-range weapons to strike Russia.
British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, for example, can now be used to target invading forces more broadly, according to reports.
Lithuania’s foreign minister has already called on Western nations to give Kyiv greater freedom to hit targets in Russia.
Ukrainian parliamentary officials have also pleaded with allies to lift restrictions as Moscow continues to amass its troops on the border.
“We saw their military sitting one or two kilometers from the border inside Russia, and there was nothing we could do about that,” Oleksandra Ustinova, head of Kyiv’s arms parliamentary commission, told Politico.
