Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western nations on Friday to lift restrictions on the use of donated weapons against Russian territory, telling military and defense leaders gathered in Germany that it was \u201cwrong\u201d to tie his country\u2019s hands in battling Russia\u2019s forces.<\/p>\n
Zelensky, in his first in-person appearance at a U.S.-led forum of nations providing arms to Ukraine, expressed gratitude for ongoing military support but said more is needed to help end the protracted conflict with Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think it is wrong that there are such steps,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to have this long-range capability, not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine but also on the Russia territory, yes, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s appeal, delivered at a U.S. military base in Germany hosting the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, underscores the stakes of the current battlefield moment for Kyiv. Ukraine is struggling to contain Russian progress in the east while its forces also advance deeper into Russia itself.<\/p>\n
The United States, Ukraine\u2019s largest single provider of weapons, has supplied billions of dollars worth of arms since the war erupted in February 2022, but Washington has so far refused to lift restrictions on the use of longer-range arms such as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to strike deep inside Russia. The Biden administration currently permits Ukraine to use U.S.-provided missiles only in limited cross-border strikes.<\/p>\n
While Washington has repeatedly set aside concerns about escalation with nuclear-armed Russia and eventually yielded to Ukrainian requests related to weapons access or use, it is unclear when or if it will do so this time.<\/p>\n
U.S. officials have long said they believe that allowing Ukraine to use ATACMS to hit sites far inside Russia would not alter the overall military balance because Russia can simply move launchers or other potential targets farther out of range.<\/p>\n
John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told reporters on Thursday ahead of the meeting in Germany that administration policy has not changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are, as we have been every day \u2026 having a conversation with our Ukrainian counterparts about what they need, what\u2019s going on on the battlefield, and what support they require to continue to have success,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Speaking alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who convened Friday\u2019s meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Zelensky said his forces have managed to outfight Russia in many instances with \u201ca minimum of weaponry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we need more weapons to drive Russian forces off our land and especially in the Donetsk region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zelensky cited the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin has appeared to prioritize his military\u2019s push to seize the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk over tackling Ukrainian forces in Russia\u2019s Kursk region.<\/p>\n
The incursion into Russia, where Ukrainian forces have seized a modest amount of territory in recent weeks, came as a surprise to many in the West and left some of Ukraine\u2019s backers wondering how the offensive will affect the course of the war.<\/p>\n
Putin \u201cdoesn\u2019t care about Russian land and people. He just wants to grab as much land and as many of our cities as possible,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian leader also called for prompt delivery of promised arms packages and said more air defense weapons are needed to protect Ukrainians. A strike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava this week demonstrated Ukraine\u2019s vulnerability, killing more than 50 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world has enough air defense systems to ensure that Russian terror does not have results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Austin, speaking after Zelensky at the beginning of the contact group discussions, said the United States shares his sense of urgency to prevail on the battlefield, but he did not address Zelensky\u2019s comments about U.S. policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are laser-focused on Ukraine\u2019s needs, including air defense, fires and armor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western nations on Friday to lift restrictions on the use of donated weapons against Russian territory, telling military and defense leaders gathered in Germany that it was \u201cwrong\u201d to tie his country\u2019s hands in battling Russia\u2019s forces. Zelensky, in his first in-person appearance at a U.S.-led forum of nations providing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}