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Ukraine’s top diplomat has called on the European Union to pressure the US into allowing them to use Western long-range missiles to strike deeper into Russian territory. The request comes ahead of crunch talks between senior Kyiv and Washington officials later this week.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, speaking in Brussels on Thursday, where he is attending an informal meeting of the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers, urged the EU to “play a role in persuading the US” to green-light the deeper strikes.
Ukraine needs “support to finally lift restrictions on long-range strikes on all legitimate military targets in Russia”, Mr Kuleba told Politico. “Of course this decision lies mainly with the United States and the UK, but France is also a party and part of the EU.”
“If we are supplied with a sufficient amount of missiles, if we are allowed to strike we will significantly decrease the capacity of Russia to inflict damage on our critical infrastructure and we will improve the situation for our forces on the ground,” he said.
After the meeting Mr Kuleba also urged the EU allies to expedite deliveries of promised air defence systems. “I conveyed a sense of urgency regarding the delivery of already pledged military aid, including air defence systems,” he said on X following his meeting.
The UK, France and the US have provided long-range weapons to Ukraine but it is Washington that holds the greatest sway in permiting Kyiv to use those missiles at a greater range, since they have to be used in tandem with US systems.
All three countries approved Ukraine’s right to strike military targets in Russia earlier this year after Moscow used launch pads near the border to hit civilian areas in northeast Ukraine.
But Washington remains hesitant to allow Ukraine to strike deeper into Russian territory for fear of how Moscow will react.
This week, it was reported that Downing Street spoke to the US to ask for those restrictions to be lifted but was rebuffed.
Washington has also now claimed that, after Ukraine’s allies allowed Kyiv to strike defensively in Russia, Moscow responded by moving its military targets out of range of Western missiles, meaning that allowing deeper strikes would not be as effective as previously thought.
Nevertheless, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, speaking alongside Mr Kuleba, said it remained imperative that the West “lifts restrictions on the use of weaponry against Russian targets”.
“The weaponry that we are providing to Ukraine has to have full use, and the restrictions have to be lifted in order for the Ukrainians to be able to target the places where Russia is bombing them. Otherwise, the weaponry is useless,” Mr Borrell said.
Mr Kuleba added that Ukraine’s backers, should they refuse to budge on this issue, would only have themselves to blame if Russia goes on to win the war.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Volodymyr Zelensky, and Rustem Umerov, Kyiv’s defence minister, are set to arrive in Washington later this week to plead the case for permission to strike deeper into Russia.
It has been reported that the pair will present senior US officials with a list of military targets deeper inside Russia by way of illustrating the usefulness of lifting the restriction.
It comes as Russia launched its third aerial attack on Ukraine in just four days, firing nearly 80 drones and missiles across the country.
Ukraine’s air force says they shot down 79 per cent of the projectiles, including 15 drones launched at the capital Kyiv.
Russia has bombarded Ukraine constantly throughout the war, though they have intermittently escalated those assaults often when Ukraine has had some military success, such as the cross-border incursion into the Russian region of Kursk earlier this month.
UK representative to the United Nations James Kariuki, speaking at a security council meeting, suggested these aerial attacks were “cowardly” and amounted to “continued evidence” that Russia is intentionally targeting civilian energy infrastructure.
Forbes Ukraine estimated that Russia’s first aerial assault of the week on Monday, during which Moscow fired 236 missiles and drones, cost Vladimir Putin $1.3bn (£983m), making it the most expensive attack since the war began.
