The US can’t supply many more long-range missiles to Ukraine because it needs to keep a “healthy reserve” to face down other threats including possible war with China, US officials have said.
They said that with tension rising around the world, the US and Nato needed to conserve missiles in case there was an “outbreak of fighting in either Europe or Asia”.
One unnamed Pentagon official told the New York Times that Ukraine would be better off investing in its long-range drone programme, which has struck airfields, radar stations and oil refineries as far away as Siberia.
The warning over missile supplies comes as Joe Biden decides whether to allow Ukraine to fire Western-made missiles into Russia, including British Storm Shadow missiles.
After a meeting at the White House with Sir Keir Starmer on Friday, Mr Biden said that he hadn’t come to a final decision. “We are working on that right now,” he said earlier in the week.
At their meeting, the two leaders also discussed the threat from Iran which is now supplying short-range missiles to Russia in return for technical support. One subject of conversation was Moscow’s potential support for Tehran’s nuclear weapons programme.
No announcement will likely be made on the approval for strikes until “the first missile lands”, one Western official told PBS on condition of anonymity.
On the issue of giving Ukraine permission to fire Western missiles into Russia, Russian officials said that they thought that the decision had already been made.