Ukraine’s Russia strike ban hopes dashed

KYIV — Ukrainian hopes that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would use the occasion of his Wednesday trip to Kyiv to announce a loosening of the rules preventing it from hitting targets inside Russia with donated weapons came to nothing.

Instead, Blinken, speaking alongside his counterpart from the United Kingdom David Lammy, said that the two top diplomats would take the information they gathered in the Ukrainian capital back to Washington, where U.S. President Joe Biden meets with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday.

“We had discussions today about situation on battlefield, Ukraine’s objectives and what it needs to succeed,” Blinken said. “I am going to take that discussion back to Washington. And both of our bosses will discuss that on Friday.”

Ukraine is pushing hard for the weapons ban to be dropped, arguing that it can’t defend itself against the rain of Russian missiles, bombs and drones without being able to hit the airfields and bases where those weapons are stored and launched. But Kyiv’s allies worry about crossing the Kremlin’s red lines and escalating the war.

The Kremlin is playing on those worries.

Further supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine are “fraught with uncontrolled escalation,” warned Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Wednesday.

However, Blinken noted that it was actually Russian leader Vladimir Putin who was escalating by expanding the strikes against Ukraine.

“We’ve seen Russia now pursue and indeed escalate its attacks inside Ukraine, on civilians, on energy infrastructure, as well as on the Ukrainian military that’s defending its country,’ Blinken said. “And we’ve now seen this action of Russia acquiring ballistic missiles from Iran, which will further empower their aggression in Ukraine. So if anyone is taking escalatory action, it would appear to be Mr Putin and Russia.”

He added: “We’re working with urgency to continue to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to effectively defend itself.”

Just before the press conference started, an air alert warned of possible ballistic missile attack. The alert sounded again just after the conference ended, with Ukraine’s air force saying it was tracking a missile headed toward Kyiv.

While Ukraine didn’t get what it was hoping for in terms of a policy change, both the U.K. and the U.S promised continued military aid.

“We’ve had detailed conversations with [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy today and we’ve recognized Ukraine is on the frontline today,” Lammy said. “We dedicate ourselves to supporting Ukraine at this crucial time.”

Lammy announced over £600 million in humanitarian, military and economic support during the visit. Blinken announced $717 million in new economic and humanitarian assistance.

“I can announce we will now also send hundreds of additional air defense missiles, tens of thousands of additional artillery ammunition rounds and more armored vehicles to Ukraine by the end of the year,” Lammy added.

However, the issue of allowing Ukraine to hit Russian targets isn’t going away.

“Together the U.K. and our allies are committed to victory of Ukraine,” Lammy said. “Listen and learn what Ukrainians have to say and inform the prime minister. We are taking this to Washington. We have [the U.N. General Assembly], we are going to talk about how we put Ukraine in the best possible position as they are heading into winter.”

While Western allies worry about crossing Russian red lines, Kyiv is starting to regularly attack Russia with its own long-range weapons. On Wednesday, the Arctic city of Murmansk, 2,000 kilometers to the north of Ukraine, shut two of its airports after reporting attacks by Ukrainian drones. A day earlier, Ukraine attacked Moscow and other targets inside Russia.