US military sees ‘value’ in letting Ukraine strike Russia with US weapons
The Biden administration is under increasing pressure to lift restrictions on U.S.-supplied long-range weapons.
A senior U.S. military official told lawmakers in early May there would be “military value” in easing restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons inside Russian territory, according to two attendees of the meeting.
The revelation comes as President Joe Biden and his aides are in discussions to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike across the border into Russia and as Moscow has made significant battlefield gains. America’s European allies and lawmakers from both parties are increasingly calling on Biden to allow such strikes across the border.
Right now, the U.S. does not allow or enable Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike targets inside Russia.
One person familiar with the discussions between Washington and Kyiv said a final decision to ease that ban was “very close now,” hinting that the Biden administration will fairly soon give Ukraine the green light.
U.S. officials more seriously considered a policy change shortly after Russia launched an attack against Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, two U.S. officials said, like others granted anonymity to detail a sensitive deliberation. The National Security Council didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.
Military officials were discussing the advantages of changing the policy even before the Kharkiv campaign began on May 10. In a closed-door briefing of House Armed Services Committee members on May 7, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pressed senior Defense Department officials to loosen U.S. restrictions on Kyiv using U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, according to the attendee.
The Pentagon officials “were trying to defend the president’s policies,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a committee member. “Republicans and Democrats were both highly critical.”
The vice director of operations for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, Rear Adm. Paul Spedero, said the military believed there would be “military value in striking legitimate targets in Russia,” according to one of the attendees. The other attendee confirmed Spedero’s comments. DOD’s top official in charge of international security affairs, Celeste Wallander, told lawmakers there was no discussion about changing the policy at that time, the attendee said.
Those comments were met with “bipartisan frustration,” said the attendee. As Bacon put it: She was “defensive of Biden’s policy and none of us bought it.”
A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting. There are “no changes to our policy,” DOD spokesperson Maj. Charlie Dietz said Thursday. “We are tracking the increase in calls to reconsider but as of now there’s nothing to announce.”
But military officials have argued internally and in discussion with lawmakers for weeks in favor of allowing Ukraine to use U.S. weapons in Russia, with some constraints on the systems and cities they could target, according to one DOD official and a Democratic lawmaker familiar with the discussions. Much of that has come since Russia began its offensive in Kharkiv, which fast-tracked conversations about how to deal with Moscow building up forces just inside the border, both people said.
Based on discussions with members of the intelligence and military community, there is “consensus” that “there would be real military value in allowing Ukraine to strike targets across the border in Russia,” said the Democratic lawmaker. “Russia has pretty effectively used that restriction to their advantage.” However, DOD’s civilian leadership is “more risk-averse.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are pushing the Biden administration to change its policy. In a discussion with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov made a “hard push” to use U.S. weapons in Russia, according to a person with knowledge of the call.
Senior Biden administration officials are increasingly signaling their openness to such a change in public.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who supports a restriction lift, became the first U.S. official to publicly hint that Biden may shift course and allow such strikes, telling reporters that U.S. policy toward Ukraine would evolve as needed. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby later did not rule out a potential change.
The bipartisan pressure on Biden to loosen restrictions on the use of U.S.-provided weapons against military targets in Russian territory comes after Congress approved more than $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine last month and the administration finally delivered long-range missiles to Kyiv.
A group of House Republicans and Democrats aired their frustrations with the administration policy in a May 20 letter to Austin. Arguing for relaxing the policy, the members said the restrictions have allowed Moscow to attack Ukraine “from Russian territory with impunity.”
Austin earlier this month stressed that the focus right now is enabling Ukraine to win in “the close fight.” However, he opened the door ever so slightly on May 20 to changing the policy, at least for aerial targets.
Asked whether Ukraine should be allowed to hit Russian bombers with glide bombs that allow Moscow to hit Ukrainian targets from the skies over Russia, Austin said during a Pentagon briefing: “We have been clear about providing Ukraine the ability to defend its sovereign territory,” acknowledging that “the aerial dynamic’s a little bit different.”
Paul McLeary contributed to this report.