Biden Says Long-Range Missiles For Ukraine Are ‘Still In Play’
In yet another reversal, President Joe Biden said the issue of providing longer-range missiles for Ukraine remains a possibility after firmly denying Ukraine’s requests for the weapon.
The latest volley of Russian airstrikes on Kyiv, one of the most intense of the war, is “not unexpected” and further proof the U.S. needs to “continue to give Ukraine all they need,” Biden told reporter Alex Raufoglu on Monday. When asked whether that included the Army Tactical Missile System, a longer-range missile Ukraine has long asked the administration to supply, Biden seemed to crack open the door to a future offer after previously rejecting the possibility due to escalation concerns.
“That’s still in play,” Biden noted, according to a video Raufoglu posted on social media.
The administration has similarly softened its stance on other systems, including M1 Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets, over the course of the war.
Concern Ukrainian forces could conduct strikes deep into Russian territory, increasing the risk Russia could see the U.S. as enabling Ukraine’s aggression against Moscow, drove the administration’s repeated rebuttal of Kyiv’s many requests for ATACMS.
In meetings with Ukrainian officials, the Pentagon has also explained that the U.S. does not have sufficient spare ATACMS to provide Ukraine without cutting into the U.S.’ own military readiness, Politico reported in February, citing four people with knowledge of the talks.
“With any package, we always consider our readiness and our own stocks while providing Ukraine what it needs on the battlefield,” a senior Department of Defense official told Politico. “There are other ways of providing Ukraine with the capabilities it needs to strike the targets.”
So far, the longest range weapon the U.S. has provided Ukraine is the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb, which can be launched from High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) up to 93 miles, according to Defense News. ATACMS, also launched by HIMARS, would nearly double Ukraine’s current strike range up to 190 miles.
The United Kingdom confirmed a delivery of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of about 155 miles, earlier in May following Ukraine’s calls for longer range missiles, Business Insider reported.
The Biden administration has so far balked at sending anything of that range, saying its aims have concentrated on on providing Ukraine with the capabilities it needs to successfully complete the imminent counteroffensive before shifting focus to building up Ukraine’s military in the long term.
“We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders,” Biden wrote in a June 1, 2022 editorial.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Biden’s practically begging for an all out war. He has sent 120 totally unaccountable billion dollars to fight a proxy war against Russia that Ukraine can’t win. And now Biden has made China Russia’s biggest ally in the worst possible consequence for us and the entire world. Biden’s “sanctions” have done nothing as Russia can sell all the oil they want to China and India; the two most populous countries in the world. So Putin is getting richer, not poorer and Russian GDP is actually growing while ours is stagnant. Now the China/Russia alliance will start trading and pushing all of Asia and South America (where China is entrenched) to be trading in the Chinese currency (Yuan). Brazil is already doing it and now the Saudis are signing up with China. Their ultimate goal is to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If that ever happens, it’s game over for a defunct and bankrupt America. That’s where we are headed unless we demand an end to this useless and unnecessary war, that was never in our national security interest, and will either bankrupt us or walk us right into WWIII.
And let’s not forget that we learned in leaked documents that our government is continuing to lie to us and Ukraine is not “winning” as they tell us, but losing badly and unsustainably so, no matter how much money we send. And, oh yeah, we actually have troops and/or special forces in Ukraine, even though uncle Joe and our government lied and said we don’t and never will and when one of them is killed, it will likely start a “hot” war with Russia.