(LibertyInsider.org) – The Biden administration has given Ukraine the green light to use US weapons inside Russia. The condition is that Ukraine must limit these strikes to certain areas near the border, according to US officials.
The restrictions in question were first put into place shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. While the Biden administration rapidly agreed to help Ukraine defend itself, they were acutely aware that moving forward without extreme caution might kick off a global conflict between several nuclear-armed states.
To mitigate these risks, US officials opted to limit how and when Ukraine could use any weapons sent over as part of a military aid package. Their goal, at the time, was to empower Ukraine’s ability to defend itself without giving Russia the power to argue that the US was indirectly attacking Russia itself.
But now, over two years later, there have been growing concerns about whether these restrictions are still justified. US officials, as well as NATO allies, have argued that limiting how and when Ukraine can use donated weapons effectively ties the country’s hands behind its back.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News last week, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called the restrictions “rather unfortunate” and suggested that they were doing more harm than good. “At a certain point, Russia can read our inaction as an invitation,” he said, “And we are already at that point.”
He wasn’t the first to speak out. Earlier in May, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Ukraine should be allowed to “prosecute the war in the way they see fit.”
French President Emmanuel Macron mirrored these sentiments during a news conference on May 28. He questioned how Ukraine was supposed to protect its cities when it wasn’t even permitted to neutralize the source of attacks. “We tell them we’re giving you weapons,” he said, “but you can’t defend yourselves.”
Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksandra Ustinova expressed similar frustrations in an interview with VOA. She said prohibitions on using the HIMARS rocket launcher system have emboldened Russia to set up along the border without fear of retaliation.
Late last week, news outlets reported that the Biden administration had, according to unnamed officials, decided to let Ukraine strike inside Russia with its weapons in a limited capacity. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the news during a news conference on Friday, May 31, saying that the decision was made after Ukraine requested it. He was also asked whether the US would consider allowing the use of its weapons to launch strikes further into Russia, to which he responded adjustments could be made as the administration sees fit.
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