The Biden administration expressed concern over the lack of a comprehensive strategy for winning the war with Russia in the plan of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi. As informs The Wall Street Journal quoting US officials, this plan looks like “only a reformatted request” for additional weapons and the lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles.
For several months, Zelenskyi has called this plan the basis for defeating Russia and plans to discuss it in detail during a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House. This will be the first time the Biden administration will hear Zelenskyi’s plan in full.
However, senior US and European officials familiar with the basic elements of the plan say it does not offer a clear vision of the path to victory, especially against the backdrop of gradual gains by Russian forces at the front.
“I’m not impressed, there’s not much new”, said one of the senior officials.
A key point of the Ukrainian plan is a call to the United States to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons at its own discretion, said Finnish President Alexander Stubb in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He emphasized that without such powers, Ukraine will not be able to effectively resist Russian aggression.
In recent months, Joe Biden has repeatedly rejected Kyiv’s requests to lift restrictions on the use of long-range missiles that the United States and Great Britain have provided to Ukraine. This would allow Ukrainian forces to strike targets deep in Russia, which some European leaders believe is necessary for the full defense of Ukraine after more than two years of war.
The position of the Biden administration has met with resistance among European allies, who believe that after a long conflict, Ukraine has the right to independently determine its defense strategy. Despite this, Washington is in no hurry to change its policy on the supply of missiles and continues to insist on maintaining certain restrictions in order to avoid further escalation of the conflict with Russia.
Zelensky expects that his visit to the White House will help convince the American side to change its position and give Ukraine greater freedom of action in the military sphere. However, given the current mood in the Biden administration, getting the green light to use long-range missiles remains unlikely.
