Zelenskyy presses US military leaders to let Ukraine strike deeper in Russia

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — Ukraine needs the ability to strike deep within Russia now, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told U.S. and allied military leaders Friday as Kyiv more fervently pressed the West to loosen weapons use restrictions and allow it to target Russian air bases and launch sites far from the border.

Zelenskyy made the case during an in-person meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He appeared to make inroads with some of the defense leaders from the 50-plus partner nations who regularly gather to coordinate weapons aid for the war.

But he did not appear to sway the ally he needs most. After the talks, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed back on the idea that long-range strikes would be a game-changer.

“I don’t believe one capability is going to be decisive and I stand by that comment,” Austin said. The Ukrainians have other means to strike long-range targets, he said.

Zelenskyy’s request comes after a series of recent deadly Russian airstrikes, including against a Ukrainian military training center that killed more than 50 and wounded hundreds this week. On Friday, the Kremlin fired five ballistic missiles at the city of Pavlohrad in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, injuring at least 50 people, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said.

“We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the divided territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace,” Zelenskyy said. “We need to make Russian cities and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin.”

The question remained whether Zelenskyy could convince President Joe Biden that the U.S. should ease its restrictions as well. While Biden has allowed Ukraine to fire U.S.-provided missiles into Russia in self-defense, the distance has been largely limited to cross-border targets deemed a direct threat, out of concerns about further escalating the conflict.

At the meeting Friday, multiple countries seemed to be persuaded that Ukraine should get the green light, which could add pressure on the Biden administration.

“Many countries (are) in favor,” said Laurynas Kasčiūnas, Lithuania’s defense minister. “Many, many. But the question is not the number of countries, but countries who give (those) missiles.”

By announcing Lithuania’s support, Kasčiūnas said, “I hope it will help to convince other countries.”

Canada’s defense minister, Bill Blair, said he hopes other Western allies also get behind the push. Canada does not have long-range munitions it could provide on its own, Blair said.

“One of the things President Zelenskyy and his ministers have made very clear to us is that they are suffering significant attacks from air bases and military installations located within Russia,” Blair said. “We support their request for permission, but it’s still a decision of our allies.”

Ukraine is now in the midst of its first offensive operations of the war while facing a significant threat from Russian forces near a key hub in the Donbas, and Kyiv is seeing that its time is running short to shore up ongoing military support before the U.S. presidential election in November.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s surprise assault inside Russia’s Kursk region has led to the capture of about 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory and killed or injured about 6,000 Russian soldiers. But it has not drawn away President Vladimir Putin’s focus from taking the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which provides critical rail and supply links for the Ukrainian army. Losing Pokrovsk could put additional Ukrainian cities at risk.

While Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, “we know Putin’s malice runs deep,” and Moscow is pressing on, especially around Pokrovsk, Austin said.

The Pentagon chief said the U.S. will provide $250 million more in weapons to Ukraine, including air defense munitions and artillery.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement said that the new package would comprise “urgently needed weapons and equipment” and include “air defense missiles and support, munitions for rocket systems and artillery, anti-tank weapons, and Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and other armored vehicles.”

“This assistance will be deployed as quickly as possible to bolster Ukraine’s defense of its territory and its people,” Blinken said.

Zelenskyy, however, said promised weapons systems have been too slow to arrive.

“The number of air defense systems that have not yet been delivered is significant,” he said.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said those systems, particularly Patriot air defense systems, need to be in Ukraine’s hands so it can defend its electrical grid and infrastructure during winter fighting.

As well as resources for air defense and artillery, the meeting aimed to focus on shoring up gains in expanding Ukraine’s own defense industrial base so it could be on more solid footing as Biden’s term winds down.

Western partner nations are working with Ukraine to source a substitute missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air defense systems, Austin said.

The U.S. is also focused on resourcing a variety of air-to-ground missiles that the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, including the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which could give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile option, said Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, who spoke to reporters traveling with Austin.

No decisions on the munition have been made, LaPlante said, noting that policymakers would still have to decide whether to give Ukraine the longer-range capability.

“I would just put JASSM in that category, it’s something that is always being looked at,” LaPlante said. “Anything that’s an air-to-ground weapon is always being looked at.”

For the past two years, members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group have met to resource Ukraine’s artillery and air defense needs, ranging from hundreds of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to some of the West’s most sophisticated air defense systems, and now fighter jets. The request this month was more of the same, but it came in person from Zelenskyy.

Since 2022, the member nations together have provided about $106 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. The U.S. has provided more than $56 billion of that total.

The German government said Chancellor Olaf Scholz planned to meet Zelenskyy in Frankfurt later Friday.

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Associated Press writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.