Washington could lift restrictions on Kiev’s use of US-provided ATACMS missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory, an Axios reporter has claimed, citing a prominent member of Congress.
The limitations were originally put in place to allow the US and its allies to claim they were not directly involved in the conflict with Russia, while arming Ukraine to the tune of $200 billion or more. Kiev has been clamoring for the restrictions to be lifted since May.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken could announce the policy change while visiting Kiev with his UK counterpart, David Lammy, this week, Axios journalist Juliegrace Brufke claimed on Tuesday, citing Congressman Michael McCaul.
“I talked to Blinken two days ago, and he is traveling with his counterpart from the UK to Kiev to basically tell them that they will allow them [to hit Russia with ATACMS],” McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Brufke in an interview last Friday.
Blinken will be in Kiev on Wednesday “to show continued support for Ukraine’s defense,” State Department spokesman Matt Miller has confirmed. He did not announce any policy changes.
However, Bloomberg quoted Blinken on Tuesday as having “signaled” Washington’s change of heart, ostensibly over claims that Iran has supplied Russia with ballistic missiles.
“We’re going to look and to listen” to Ukraine’s request, Blinken said at a press conference with Lammy in London. He added that US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will discuss the “missile issue” on Friday in Washington.
“We’re working that out now,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday, when asked about Ukraine’s long-range missile use.
Blinken claimed that Iran had delivered an unspecified number of Fath-360 missiles to Russia, defying months of Western warnings, and that Moscow will use them against Ukraine “within weeks.”
Iran has categorically denied the accusation, insisting it has not supported either party in the conflict.
“No missile was sent to Russia and this claim is a kind of psychological warfare,” senior military commander Fazlollah Nozari told Iranian media on Monday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, “Iran’s accusers are the ones who are among the biggest arms exporters to one side of the war.”
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has accused the West of being involved in the Ukraine conflict “up to its ears,” and said the issue of arming Kiev will be discussed at the Security Council on Friday.
As late as August 27, the Pentagon maintained that its policy on the use of long-range weapons had not changed. This was before Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, visited Washington with a reported list of Russian targets they sought approval to strike.
Ukraine has repeatedly launched drones as far as Moscow, infamously crashing one on the roof of the Kremlin in May 2023. On Tuesday, another Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in Moscow Region, killing one civilian and injuring three.