Biden weighing giving Ukraine missiles capable of reaching Russia

Joe Biden is considering providing longer-range missiles to Ukraine in its war with Russia following his controversial decision to also send cluster munitions . The administration has been wary of sending Kyiv the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) because it has a range of just under 200 miles – meaning it could be used to strike Russia and Crimea from Ukraine. Some U.S. politicians have maintained that while they want to arm Ukraine with the weapons to defend against Russian aggression, they do not want to provide the country with the means to launch their own counterattack.

After speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Vilnius, Lithuania during the 2023 NATO Summit on Wednesday, Biden told reporters that he is considering authorizing providing longer-range missiles. Zelensky briefed Biden on his country’s continued counteroffensive after Russia invaded in February 2022. The president told reporters before boarding Air Force One that he cannot provide more details on their meeting. Meanwhile, lawmakers and politicians back home in the U.S. are still reeling over Biden’s move to give more cluster munitions to Ukraine. The controversial weapon is banned by 100 countries – including Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Cluster munitions weapons system dispenses a large number of tiny bomblets from a rocket and are prone to ‘duds’ that can explode at a later date, maiming or killing those who come in contact with it. Particularly at risk are children who mistake the dud bomb for a toy.

Russia and Ukraine have used the munitions since the onset of their conflict last year. ‘It’s very simple to criticize cluster munitions,’ Zelensky said during remarks in Lithuania on Wednesday. ‘I didn’t hear some of you countries criticize Russia,’ he added, acknowledging that it was a difficult decision for Biden that ‘will help us save us.’ Asked about sending ATACMS weapons, Biden told reporters there is an equivalent being considered. ‘What we need most of all is artillery shells,’ he said. ‘We’re in short supply, but we’re working on that. They seem very satisfied with everything we’re doing.’ At the NATO 2023 Summit on Wednesday, treaty countries unveiled their Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine, but stopped short of admitting the country into the treaty organization.

Biden said the message NATO wants to send to Russian President Vladimir Putin is: ‘We’re together.’ In Lithuania, Biden blasted Donald Trump as he issued a warning to Putin to pull out of Ukraine and abandon his ‘bad bet’ that the U.S. would end its support for the war-torn country. The president, in yet another fiery speech in defense of Kyiv , claimed he had been ‘rebuilding’ ties with European allies after Trump’s spell in the White House and insisted that Putin ‘cannot be allowed to seize his neighbor’s territory by force.’ ‘Russia could end this war tomorrow by withdrawing his forces from Ukraine’ and ‘ceasing his inhumane attacks on women and children’, the 80-year-old said. ‘Unfortunately, Russia has shown thus far no interest in the diplomatic outcome. Putin still wrongly believes that he can outlast Ukraine. He can’t believe it’s their land, their country and their future and even after all this time, Putin still doubts our staying power. He is still making a bad bet. ‘When Russian bombs began to fall, we did not hesitate to act. We rallied the world support the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their liberty and their sovereignty.’

‘When Putin, and his craven lust for land and power, unleashed his brutal war on Ukraine, he was betting NATO would break apart. He thought NATO would break. He thought our unity would shatter at the first testing. He thought democratic leaders would be weak. But he thought wrong.’ Biden also made a barely-veiled attack on Donald Trump’s foreign policy, blasting his predecessor for undermining U.S. ties with Europe. The former president once mulled pulling out of NATO, arguing that taxpayers in America were shouldering too much of the burden, and withdraw nearly 10,000 troops from U.S. bases in Germany. ‘I’ve been so focused as president on rebuilding and revitalizing alliances, the cornerstone of American leadership in these past years, Biden said. His administration had been stressed the importance of the relationship between Europe and the United States as an anchor to global stability. And in blunt remarks clearly aimed at the real estate mogul and his Republican supporters, Biden said: ‘The idea that the United States could prosper without a secure Europe is not reasonable. That really is not a joke.’ Biden made his speech at Vilnius University, the oldest college in the Baltic nation that was once occupied by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

Lithuania eventually broke away from the Soviet Union and restored its independence in 1990, joining NATO in 2004. The speech had echoes of Biden’s rallying cries in support of the military alliance in Warsaw earlier this year. The United States spends more on defense than any other country because it is the world’s largest economy worth just over $23 trillion. It currently splashes out 3.1 percent of its gross domestic product, a key measure of economic activity, or roughly $816 billion on boosting its military might. But the Biden administration said in March this year that it would increase that figure with Congress eventually signing off on a $856 billion defense budget for 2024. The second largest NATO spender is Britain, which shells out 3.5 percent of its GDP on defense that equates to just over $72 billion. It is why Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been urging all of the 31 NATO members to spend at least 2 percent and honor a long-standing pledge agreed in Wales in 2014. Poland has promised to ramp up its own figure to 4% of GDP with its whole economy worth just over $688 billion this year. Biden’s remarks came at the end of a two-day visit to the Lithuanian capital for a key NATO summit that was overshadowed by a row over when Kyiv can join the mutual defense club.

The U.S. had traded barbs with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky over what he called the ‘absurd’ delay to laying out a timeline for his country to sign up. But Washington is concerned that the West could get dragged into a full-scale war ‘ with Russia and is only offering ‘long-term commitments’ to protect Ukraine from future attacks. Lawmakers in the U.S. have earmarked a grand total of $113 billion thus far to help Kyiv’s armed forces boot out the Russian invaders. Just over $46 billion has already been dispersed and spent on military aid for the Ukrainian military, official data shows. Zelensky struck a more conciliatory tone on Wednesday in his face-to-face talks with Biden in the Lithuanian capital. The two leaders offered a sharp contrast as they sat side by side, Biden in a traditional business suit and Zelensky in his trademark military green T-shirt and trousers. Biden said he understood the Ukrainian leader’s frustration at getting the help he needs quickly enough.

‘I promise you the United States is doing everything we can to get you what you need,’ Biden said in the presence of reporters. ‘I look forward to the day when we’re having the meeting celebrating your official, official membership in NATO,’ he said. Speaking to reporters later on Wednesday, Zelensky warned that he would not accept a ‘frozen conflict’ with Russia. ‘We want to recover our lands, restore security on our territory,’ Zelensky said. ‘That’s victory… A frozen conflict is not a victory.’ G7 leaders instead offered a security deal, brokered by Biden, that pledged to boost Ukraine’s air, sea and land defenses. But it stopped short of the ‘attack on one is an attack on all’ doctrine that is the hallmark of NATO that Biden called ‘a sacred oath’ earlier on Wednesday. That mutual defense clause has only been triggered once in the organization’s history – by the United States after Al Qaeda’s attacks on 9/11 in 2001. George W. Bush’s administration evoked Article 5 of the NATO treaty to launch the U.S.-led of Afghanistan. Finland, which has been non-aligned for decades, is the latest country to sign up with Sweden set to become the 32nd nation to gain membership. Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12293075/Biden-considering-giving-Ukraine-long-range-missiles-capable-reaching-Russia.html?ito=msngallery

Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Visit our profile page here and hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.