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Ukrainian parliamentary officials are calling on the Biden administration to lift restrictions on U.S. arsenals targeting Kiev on Russian territory. Politico reported.
In an interview published Tuesday, the paper quoted two congressmen, David Arakamia and Oleksandra Ustinova, who were in Washington to rally support for the request.
Ustinova, head of Ukraine’s Special Parliamentary Committee on Arms and Ammunition and leader of the opposition Horos, repeatedly spoke of the predicament Kiev faces due to the strike ban.
“We saw their troops stationed inside Russia, a kilometer or two from the border, and there was nothing we could do about it,” Ustinova told Politico.
Russia launched an offensive last weekend in northeast Kharkiv, capturing several settlements and targeting bridges in the area. The new incursions come more than a year after Ukraine recaptured the region in mid-2022.
Ukraine has known for weeks that Russia was gather troops at the borderIntelligence officials said in early May that Moscow was gathering intelligence. There are 50,000 to 70,000 people there.
But the advance of Russian troops has left some Ukrainians unsettled, questioning why the area appears to be so poorly defended after footage emerged of Moscow’s troops passing unopposed. ing. Ukrainian media reported that the commander-in-chief in charge of the region’s defense said: He was fired on Tuesday.
Ustinova said in an interview with Politico that the Russians “have gotten smarter because they know that there are restrictions on Ukrainians firing inside Russian territory.”
“And we saw all their military equipment abandoned a kilometer or two from the border, but there was nothing we could do,” she said.
Some observers say Moscow’s goal on the northern front may be to establish a “buffer zone” that prevents Ukrainian forces from attacking Russia’s borders, rather than advancing into the city of Kharkiv.
It would also give the Kremlin space to deploy artillery that would be within range of the city of Kharkiv. Ustinova told Politico that Russia aims to make Kharkov a replica of the Battle of Mariupol. The fighting at Mariupol was so intense that much of the eastern city was virtually leveled.
“You give us a stick, but you don’t let us use it,” she said.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, Sunday review Russia was able to advance into Kharkov thanks to the ban on NATO weapons attacks.
“Russia’s offensive efforts to seize Bovtyansk are largely the result of an implicit policy by the West that Ukrainian forces cannot use Western-provided systems to attack legitimate military targets inside Russia,” the newspaper said. said.
Ukraine has attacked cross-border targets, most recently Russian oil facilities, but only with its own drones.
Washington and its allies fear that allowing Ukraine to attack mainland Russia with Western equipment would be crossing a red line with Moscow.
It is not immediately clear whether this will lead to all-out war, but other ways for the Kremlin to fight back include organizing terrorist attacks with extremist groups lurking in the West.
To this end, some weapons systems, such as the HIMARS launcher that the United States delivered to Ukraine, were tweaked before delivery to prevent them from firing on Russia.
The policy is as follows criticized As a means to effectively protect Russia from a serious counterattack from Ukraine. Still, two anonymous U.S. officials told Politico that the Biden administration has not changed the rules.
“The assistance is for defense and not for offensive operations on Russian territory,” one official said, according to Politico.
The White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.
Kiev relies primarily on equipment supplied by the West to thwart Russian advances, and said U.S. artillery plays a major role in its defense.The United States has recently $25.7 billion Military equipment and weapons were provided to Ukraine as part of a new $61 billion in aid that had been pending in Congress for months.