Pressure Grows On Biden Administration To Let U.S. Weapons Strike Russia

The United States on Thursday reiterated its position that it wants Ukraine to win the war against Russian aggression even though the Biden Administration is not yet ready to announce policy change to lift restrictions on the use of donated weapons against targets in Russian territory, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We expect them to win by continuing to provide them the billions of dollars in security assistance that we have provided them since the outset of this conflict..." State Department's Spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing when responding to TURAN's questions.

Miller went on to elaborate, "... the type of security assistance that along with brave Ukrainian fighting has led them to recapture a majority of the territory that they lost to Russia in the early days of the war, the capabilities that have led them to win the battles of Kyiv and Kharkiv and Kherson and have led them to push Russia back from the Black Sea. Those are the types of policies that have shown success that we will continue to pursue."

Miller's comments came as the Biden Administration had been facing growing pressure from allies to allow Kyiv to strike targets inside Russia using Western weapons. A number of European countries have already signalled they are open to an easing of restrictions on how Ukraine can use weapons supplied by the West and pressure on Washington to relax the ban has ramped up in recent days, with EU Parliament voicing direct support for the move.

“As leaders of Europe, we cannot stand by while this war rages on, with innocent lives lost daily,” a group of European parliamentarians, including former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, said in a letter to the White House.

The Helsinki Commission, a European security-focused U.S. congressional body, also said on Tuesday that Ukrainian victory over Russia is crucial to preserve freedom for Ukrainians, independence for Ukraine, and American national security.  "Let Ukraine strike back. Let Ukraine win," the Commission said.

Miller also told reporters that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was briefed last week during his trip to Kyiv on elements of a Ukrainian plan to push Russia to end the war.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to present his "Victory Plan" on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York next week.