News Mania Desk/ Piyal Chatterjee / 11th September 2024
Washington may ease limitations on Ukraine employing US long-range missiles against Russia, as President Joe Biden has intimated.
If approved, it would satisfy Ukraine’s repeated requests to lift restrictions on weaponry supplied by the US, which officials claim have left them helpless to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Although President Vladimir Putin of Russia has not yet spoken, he has previously stated that such action may result in “very serious problems”.
Following US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s accusations that Iran was providing Russia with short-range ballistic missiles, Biden made his comments.
Responding to a question from reporters on Tuesday about whether the US will remove limitations on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles, President Biden stated that his administration was “working that out now”.
The US has been hesitant to provide or authorize the use of weapons that could strike targets deep inside Russia since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 out of concern that it would exacerbate the conflict.
However, it has eased some of the restrictions on the use of these missiles, enabling Ukraine to target regions along Russia’s border where troops are firing from with long-range missiles.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has been critical of the speed at which weapons are being delivered and has requested permission to use Western-supplied missiles to attack targets located deep into Russia. The US has so far opposed this request.
Putin, the leader of Russia, also issued a warning earlier this year about the possibility that Ukrainian missile assaults on Russia could spark a bigger conflict.
Separately on Tuesday, further penalties were placed on Iran by the US, UK, France, and Germany for providing Russia with ballistic missiles to be used in Ukraine.
The actions included asset freezes and travel bans on some Iranians suspected of aiding Russia’s military, as well as limitations on the national carrier Iran Air’s capacity to fly to the UK and Europe.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed during a visit to London that Russian military had received training from Iran to utilize short-range ballistic missiles, which they might employ against Ukrainians in a matter of weeks.
Russia’s arsenal will probably be bolstered by the missiles, allowing it to launch its longer-range missiles farther into Ukrainian territory while simultaneously hitting Ukrainian cities on its borders or in areas it currently controls.
Iran has consistently denied giving Russia these kinds of self-guiding weaponry.
Iran’s action was referred to as “a significant and dangerous escalation” by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
On Wednesday, Blinken and Lammy will fly to Kiev jointly to meet with President Zelensky.
Prior to the visit, Blinken stated that one of their aims was to “hear directly from the Ukrainian leadership” about their “objectives and what we can do to support those needs”.
