US wants Ukraine to detail plan before allowing Russia strikes

The U.S. plans to push President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to detail his strategy for striking deeper into Russian territory before agreeing to lift restrictions on the use of longer-range weapons provided by Washington and its allies.

During a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy planned to press Zelenskyy and his team to spell out a longer-term plan into next year, according to officials who asked not be identified given the sensitivity of the discussions. That includes a better sense of what Kyiv wants to target and why – and how Western support will back those goals before making a decision, the officials said.

No significant change in the restrictions is expected this week, even as Blinken on Tuesday signaled the U.S. was considering allowing Ukraine to conduct deeper strikes. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet in Washington on Friday to discuss the issue, along with the war in the Middle East, China and artificial intelligence.

Ahead of the meeting with Blinken and Lammy, the Ukrainian president said he would reinforce his plea to soften weapons restrictions in a meeting with Biden this month at the United Nations General Assembly.

“Unfortunately it doesn’t depend on my optimism, it depends on their optimism,” Zelenskyy told reporters Wednesday.

A decision on deep strikes is unlikely to come before the UN meeting in New York near the end of the month, although Biden may weigh in on whether a policy shift is coming, the officials said.

The U.S. until now has opposed such targeting, citing concerns of escalating the 2 1/2-year war. For its part, the U.K. has indicated it’s open to Ukraine striking military targets inside Russia with Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles.

‘Victory plan’

Late last month, Zelenskyy said he would lay out a “victory plan” to force Russia to halt its invasion when he meets with Biden, though didn’t offer specifics. He said he would also brief the U.S. presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, on the plan.

Blinken’s signaling on Ukraine targeting came Tuesday as the U.S. and U.K. accused Iran of transferring shipments of its Fath-360 missiles to Russia, defying months of warnings not to do so. The transfer represents a deepening involvement by Tehran in Russia’s war in Ukraine and marks a “critical moment” in the war, he said.

And while Blinken indicated he’s more amenable to a policy change, others in the Biden administration, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, have expressed reluctance. During a meeting with defense chiefs last week at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Austin told reporters that no specific weapon would be a game changer in Russia’s war.

Meanwhile, some NATO allies are pushing the alliance to allow members near Ukraine to shoot down Russian missiles and drones inside Ukrainian airspace before they enter their own, according to people familiar with the matter.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told the Financial Times last week that Warsaw and others have a “duty” to intercept incoming Russian missiles, although that sentiment isn’t universally shared within his coalition government.

Ukraine’s new foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, has discussed the matter with other European nations in recent days, but there’s no consensus within NATO and a policy change isn’t imminent, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private. One official said nations on NATO’s eastern flank could take action in Ukrainian airspace without a broader agreement.

Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg previously rejected such a proposal, saying it risked the alliance “becoming part of the conflict”.