WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer reaffirmed their “unwavering support” for Ukraine at a meeting on September 13, according to a White House statement on the talks that didn’t mention the topic of loosening restrictions on Kyiv’s use of donated long-range weapons deeper inside Russian territory.
Meeting amid signs that Ukraine’s allies are growing more receptive to loosening restrictions on the use of the long-range weapons to allow it to hit targets deep inside Russia, Starmer was expected to press Biden on the issue.
But a White House statement afterward failed to mention the topic and instead mentioned several global topics along with a pledge of continued support for Ukraine.
“The leaders had an in-depth discussion on a range of foreign policy issues of mutual interest. They reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine as it continues to defend against Russia’s aggression,” the statement said.
The only other mention of the war in Ukraine was an expression of “deep concern about Iran and North Korea’s provision of lethal weapons to Russia and the People’s Republic of China’s support to Russia’s defense industrial base.”
The United States has restricted the use of the weapons over concerns that allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia could cause an escalation in the war and possibly prompt Russia to use a nuclear weapon.
Hours ahead of the talks, White House national-security spokesman John Kirby looked to tamp down speculation of a lifting of the restrictions, saying the United States was not planning to announce any new policy with regard to the issue.
The Biden-Starmer meeting came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a tour of Europe in which he heard repeated appeals from Ukraine and its allies to lift the restrictions.
He said at the conclusion of the trip that he would relay the comments to Biden, noting that in the past the United States has adapted its policies to fit the situation on the battlefield.
Biden in May altered U.S. policy to allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-donated missiles into Russia to defend itself against a major Russian offensive that included missile and drone barrages fired from Russian territory.
But he maintained a limit on the distance the U.S. missiles could strike, meaning Ukraine could only hit targets in regions close to the border.
The Guardian newspaper, quoting government sources, reported on September 12 that London had already given Ukraine permission to use its Storm Shadow missile for strikes deep into Russian territory. Other British media, however, reported that the United Kingdom might require Washington’s permission first because the weaponry contains U.S.-made components.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 12 warned against any change in policy that would allow Western weapons to be used for long-range strikes on his country’s territory, saying it would mean that the NATO alliance of which the United States and Britain are members, would be “at war” with Russia.
“If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will make the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face,” Putin said.
Putin claimed that the Ukrainian military would only be able to carry out such strikes when using data from NATO satellites and that only military personnel of NATO “can carry out flight tasks for these missile systems.”
When asked about the Russian president’s warning, Biden said before meeting Starmer that “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on September 13 reiterated Berlin’s refusal to send long-range missiles to Ukraine, telling a news conference that Germany “has made a clear decision about what we will do and what we will not do. This decision will not change.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has recently ramped up his calls for Kyiv’s Western partners to loosen restrictions on donated weapons.
Zelenskiy has argued that longer-range capability is needed to allow Ukraine to better defend itself against attacks as Russia has moved its long-range weaponry beyond Ukraine’s reach.
Russia has also made significant territorial gains on the ground in Ukraine’s east amid an ongoing offensive. It has also begun a counterattack to retake Russian territory overrun by Ukraine following a surprise incursion into Russia, the first since World War II.
Zelenskiy said on September 13 that the counterattack in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine took more than 1,300 square kilometers of territory in the space of a few weeks, was expected but had so far seen “no serious success.”
The Ukrainian president also said at a conference in Kyiv that the situation around the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which Russian forces aim to capture as they advance in the Donetsk region, remained difficult but was stabilizing.
Zelenskiy said that he plans to present a “victory plan” to end the war with Russia to Biden later this month.
“[It] can pave the way for a reliable peace — for the full implementation of the peace formula,” he said at a conference organized by the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation charity.
In recent weeks, Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine has no intention of holding the Russian territory it controls as a result of the incursion launched in August. However, he said it gave Ukraine leverage for future negotiations and that captured Russian soldiers were valuable in exchanges for Ukrainian troops captured by Russia.
During the conference, Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed the full support from its allies in order to be in a strong position to negotiate with Russia, and repeated his calls for the West to help Ukraine carry out long-range strikes into Russia.
Starmer and Biden also reiterated their “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, the urgent need for a ceasefire deal that will free the hostages and enable increased relief in Gaza, and the need for Israel to do more to protect civilians and address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the White House said.
The two leaders also had an “in-depth discussion” on a range of foreign policy issues of mutual interest, including attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, environmental issues, and economic ties, the White House said.