KYIV: The US and British top diplomats began a visit on Wednesday (Sep 11) to Ukraine, where they will discuss further easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, whose alleged acquisition of Iranian missiles has raised new fears.
In a rare joint trip, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the nine-hour train from Poland to Kyiv alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose two-month-old Labour government has vowed to keep up Britain’s role as a key defender of Ukraine.
The visit comes as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ramps up his requests to the West to provide weapons with more firepower and fewer restrictions.
US President Joe Biden, asked in Washington whether he would let Ukraine use longer-range weapons for strikes on Russian targets, said: “We’re working that out right now.”
In Moscow, the Kremlin promised it would respond “appropriately” if Washington eases its restrictions.
Biden, while strongly supportive of Ukraine, has previously made clear he wants to avoid devolving into direct conflict between the United States and Russia, the world’s two leading nuclear powers.
Blinken, speaking on Tuesday in London alongside Lammy, said the United States was committed to providing Ukraine “what they need when they need it to be most effective in dealing with the Russian aggression”.
But Blinken, who is paying his fifth trip to Kyiv since the invasion, said it was also important to see if Ukrainian forces could maintain and operate particular weaponry.
Pressed later in an interview with Sky News on whether the United States would green-light long-range weapons, Blinken said: “We never rule out, but when we rule in, we want to make sure it’s done in such a way that it can advance what the Ukrainians are trying to achieve.”
