NYT: Biden faces pressure to allow Ukraine longer-range strikes on Russia

As world leaders gather for the annual United Nations General Assembly, President Biden is facing increasing pressure to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of weapons, the New York Times reports. Key allies are urging the US to allow Ukraine to use longer-range weapons to strike bases deeper inside Russia.

Finland’s new president, Alexander Stubb, and NATO’s departing secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, are among those calling for a change in policy. Stubb, who will speak for all Nordic countries at the UN, told the New York Times,

“I call upon our allies in the global West, including the United States, to allow Ukraine to fight without one hand tied behind its back and to lift those restrictions.”

The push comes as Ukraine is slowly losing ground to Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region. Russia continues to attack Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including electricity and heating plants, from a distance as winter approaches.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine is expected to present what he calls a “victory plan” for Biden to examine during the UN meeting.

Stoltenberg told CNN,

“Ukraine has the right for self-defense and that includes striking legitimate military targets on the territory of the aggressor, Russia.” He added that NATO countries “have the right to provide the weapons that they are using to do so without us becoming a party to the conflict.”

Both Stubb and Stoltenberg noted that various allied “red lines” had already been crossed with the provision of advanced weapons systems to Ukraine, including Leopard II battle tanks, Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missiles, longer-range artillery, and American-made F-16 fighter jets.

Frederiksen: Let’s end the red lines discussion, Russia crossed most important one, entering Ukraine

Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has also pushed Biden to allow the use of longer-range weapons like Anglo-French Storm Shadow/Scalp to hit bases farther into Russia.

The debate over weapons restrictions comes as the UN faces calls for reform. Stubb plans to propose an expansion of the UN Security Council and elimination of the single-country veto, “which makes the Security Council dysfunctional,” during his address at the General Assembly.

Russia vetoed all UNSC resolutions on Ukraine amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.

Related:

• Zelenskyy: We are closer to end of war than we think, but Ukraine should be strengthened
• Frederiksen: Let’s end the red lines discussion, Russia crossed most important one, entering Ukraine
• Ukraine has full right to attack Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Finnish President Stubb says
• Zelenskyy praises intelligence unit for long-range strike likely on Russia’s air base near Finland
• CNN: Zelenskyy says long-range weapons ban lift key part of his “Victory Plan”