Ukraine to press top US and UK officials on striking deeper inside Russia

Ukrainian officials will have a fresh chance to lobby Washington and London to let them use long-range missiles to target sites inside Russia when Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy visit Ukraine together on Wednesday.

Kyiv has been urging its allies to remove restrictions on using long-range weapons to strike targets within Russia, a ban imposed by nations such as the U.S. and U.K. due to a range of concerns. But the Biden administration argues that beyond the risk of escalating the war there’s a limited number of the missiles needed and that Russia has relocated its air assets out of range.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mike McCaul (R-Texas) said in an interview he believes, based on a recent conversation with Blinken, that the top diplomat will use the visit to deliver the news that Kyiv can use U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems across Russia’s border.

McCaul, a critic of President Joe Biden’s national security approach, has been spearheading a pressure campaign and led a letter sent Monday pressing President Joe Biden to remove limits on Ukraine’s use of the missiles.

“[Blinken’s] as supportive as I am, and he just said, ‘I have some good news. I’m going to Ukraine with my counterpart from the U.K. to talk about ATACMS. And what I’ve seen and what I’ve been briefed on, it looks like that’s the message they’re going to give them, that they can use them cross-border,’” McCaul said. “It sounded promising to me.”

A senior Biden administration official, however, suggested the Biden team still hasn’t made up its mind on the issue.

Blinken will listen to the Ukrainian arguments this week and will relay the messages to Biden and the rest of the U.S. national security team, said the senior administration official, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations. A decision on whether to permit such inside-Russia strikes could follow.

The trip to Kyiv with Lammy is notable as the two allies have been first with a host of weapons for Ukraine, including tanks and British Storm Shadow and American Army Tactical Missile Systems, both of which are long-range than anything the Ukrianians could field at the start of the war.

Both countries have placed limitations on where Ukraine can use them inside Russia however, restrictions that the Ukrainians have argued for months should be lifted to allow them to hit Russian logistics and airfields that are part of Moscow’s war effort.

If permission is granted, it would follow a pattern in which Biden initially resists but eventually allows Kyiv to have more latitude or greater capabilities.

In May, Biden permitted limited U.S. weapons strikes in Russia for cross-border defense operations, but Kyiv and its advocates have sought broader permissions to build on battlefield gains. The Army missiles have a range of up to 190 miles, allowing Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia, which would mark a significant escalation if approved.

On a visit to Washington last month, Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, and Andriy Yermak, senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pressed the case, pointing out that many targets, including critical infrastructure and Russian logistics nodes, were still well within range of the missiles.

Beyond the risk of intensifying the war, the Biden administration has recently emphasized that easing restrictions would pose limited tactical benefit, as Russia has moved many of its air assets out of the missiles’ range. Officials also believe Ukraine doesn’t have enough ATACMS to strike key targets within Russia, and the U.S. has a constrained stockpile available for Ukraine.

McCaul maintains that the devastation from recent Russian attacks has changed the Biden administration’s calculus — and he speculated that the White House wants to start brokering a peace deal before U.S. elections next month.

“I think when [Russia] came back with that massive glide bomb attack,” McCaul said. “I think personally that [administration officials] want to try to negotiate something before the election. They’re not in any position without any leverage to do so, unless [Ukrainian forces] have some victories.”

The news comes as the Biden administration’s updated Ukraine strategy has arrived on Capitol Hill, a person familiar with the report said. The news was first reported by Reuters.

The classified report, which was mandated in April when Congress passed the $95 billion supplemental bill that funds U.S. military and economic support for Kyiv, was expected in June. The person said that the administration has long had a military and economic strategy for its Ukraine support, and the report reflects the long-term thinking in the White House.

Some of Ukraine’s Democratic allies in Congress are also calling for the Biden administration to uncuff Ukraine. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said he planned to press White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan for the greenlight at a meeting on Wednesday.

“You’ve got to constantly reevaluate where we are and what more we could do,” Kelly said in an interview. “We can’t let Russia win. So I’m going up, having conversations with the administration.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), another senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he’s watched the expansion of bipartisan support for loosening the restrictions.

“I believe it’s actively under consideration by the administration,” Blumenthal said. “I have seen some of my colleagues who feared escalation that Ukrainians really need the authority to strike the sources of slaughter against them. It’s been gradual but I think more and more of my colleagues now feel that giving Ukraine to strike deeper is necessary.”