U.S. lawmakers push Biden administration to allow Ukraine to strike Russia
Calls are growing from U.S. lawmakers and former government officials urging the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to strike military targets within Russia with U.S.-supplied weapons, despite fears that doing so risks escalating the war with Moscow.
Russia has been bombarding Ukraine with air assaults and missiles originating from the Russian mainland that have destroyed critical infrastructure as well as military targets. At the same time, Russian forces have launched a fierce offensive along the eastern border, which Ukraine’s depleted forces are struggling to repel.
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On Tuesday, Ukraine said it destroyed the last Russian warship armed with cruise missiles that was stationed off Crimea over the weekend in a long-range attack.
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Although there was no immediate comment from the Kremlin confirming the strike, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had shot down nine U.S. ATACMS missiles over Crimea.
The supply of ATACMS and other long-range missiles by Ukraine’s allies, as well as Cameron’s comments, prompted Russia to announce it would begin drills on the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons. Those drills began on this week, the defence ministry said Tuesday.
Experts believe Russia is unlikely to actually use nuclear warheads on the battlefield, and that the drills are another example of aggressive diplomacy.
Other western nations have resisted sending Ukraine capabilities for striking Russia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far refused appeals from Ukrainian officials to provide Taurus missiles, which are equipped with stealth technology and have a range of up to 500 kilometres.
The German- and Swedish-made missiles would be able to reach targets deep in Russia from Ukrainian soil. But Berlin has balked at that prospect, saying that sending the missiles would bring a risk of it becoming directly involved in the war.
