Zelenskyy has one last chance to persuade Biden to authorise strikes on Russia - Economist
Next week, US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are to meet on the sidelines of the annual session of the UN General Assembly. The Ukrainian leader will have the last chance to convince the head of the White House to allow the US long-range ATACMS missiles to strike deep into the territory of the aggressor country Russia.
According to Censor.NET, The Economist writes about this.
The newspaper recalled that a complete ban on US weapons hitting targets in Russia was lifted in May, when Washington said Ukraine could strike at a concentration of Russian troops across the border preparing to attack the city of Kharkiv. When the Ukrainians entered the Kursk region a month later, they took with them anti-aircraft missile batteries that were deployed against Russian troops called upon to repel the invasion. No objections were raised in Washington.
In the past, the reason for prohibiting Ukraine from using US weapons against targets in Russia was that it could provoke an escalation of the Kremlin's response, which would ultimately cause more damage to Ukraine and could even lead to Russia's use of nuclear weapons. In recent months, new reasons for restricting Ukraine have emerged.
"The unnamed officials suggest that the administration does not want to jeopardise a 'reset' with Moscow at some point in the future. Other officials argue that allowing Ukraine to use ATACMS, which has a longer range than HIMARS, against targets in Russia will not change the strategic picture because there are not enough targets within range of these systems. Russia has relocated most of the aircraft used to launch powerful glider bombs, and in any case, such a scarce resource would be better used against targets in Crimea," the newspaper writes.
It has also recently become known that the Biden administration did not allow the UK and France to approve Ukraine's request to use Storm Shadow/Scalp missiles outside Ukrainian territory. This was possible because this cruise missile contains American components.
Experts call the arguments about the lack of targets in the range of Western weapons or the insufficient number of missiles dubious. Ben Hodges, the former commander of US forces in Europe, describes the situation as "a constant justification that is misleading and inaccurate". According to him, there is "no moral or legal reason not to attack these targets". He stressed that Mr Biden is taking a lot of advice from Obama-era officials who have been repeatedly wrong about Russia. And if Biden does not change his mind, "his legacy will be tarnished".
"Mr Zelenskyy will soon have one last chance to persuade Mr Biden to adopt a new approach before he leaves office when they meet next week in New York on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly," The Economist adds.
