Washington’s support for Kiev constantly “evolves”, national security spokesman John Kirby has argued
Washington has so far given Kiev permission to use American weapons to only hit targets in the part of Russia bordering Ukraine’s Kharkov Region, but won’t rule out further loosening the restrictions and expanding the geography of such cross-border strikes, depending on the battlefield situation, national security spokesman John Kirby has stated.
Last week, Washington officially announced its decision to let Kiev use American weapons outside what the US considers Ukrainian territory – supposedly so far limited only to a small piece of Russia’s Belgorod Region. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky praised the move, but immediately claimed it was not “sufficient” enough.
Speaking to the press on Monday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby insisted that Washington’s “policy with respect to prohibiting the use of ATACMS, for instance, or long-range strikes, inside of Russia has not changed” – but noted that “we’ll see where things go and what the Ukrainians need.”
“And so we’ll have those talks, we’ll have those conversations with the Ukrainians. Absolutely, we will,” Kirby said, reiterating that it remains to be seen “whether it leads to any additional policy changes.”
“We’re not going to turn our back on what Ukraine needs. And we’re going to continue to try to, again, evolve our support to them as the battlefield evolves as well,” he added.
The US is close to making a “fatal” miscalculation in its attempts to deal with Russia and the Ukraine conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned on Monday. Officials in Washington “have given Kiev a permit for any crimes, any action, and do nothing to curb provocations by their clients… But the US does not get this for free and will feel consequences,” the official said.
President Vladimir Putin also warned Kiev’s Western backers of “serious consequences” of potential long-range strikes “considering the [countries’] parity in strategic weapons.”
US President Joe Biden previously maintained that in order to avoid “World War III,” American arms sent to Ukraine could not target what the US considers Russian territory. The latest policy change allows Kiev to attack exclusively military targets that pose a direct threat to Kharkov Region, which borders Russia’s Belgorod Region. Moscow says it launched an offensive near Kharkov last month in response to constant Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes on Belgorod.
