Ukraine made a new call Saturday on the West to allow it to strike deeper into Russia after a meeting between US and British leaders a day earlier produced no visible shift in policy on the use of long-range weapons. “Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields, and military bases inside the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said Saturday. “Permission to strike deep into Russia will speed up the solution.” Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called on allies to greenlight the use of Western-provided long-range weapons to strike targets deep in Russian territory, the AP reports. So far, the US has allowed Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine.
Discussions on long-range strikes were believed to be on the table when President Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met in Washington on Friday, but no decision was announced immediately. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pressing the US and other allies to allow his forces to use Western weapons to target air bases and launch sites farther afield as Russia has stepped up assaults on Ukraine’s electricity grid and utilities before winter. “We need to boost our air defense and long-range capabilities to protect our people,” Zelensky wrote Saturday on social media. “We are working on this with all of Ukraine’s partners.” Other developments included:
- Overnight attacks: More than 70 Russian drones were launched into Ukraine overnight, Zelensky said. The Ukrainian air force later said that 76 Russian drones had been sighted, of which 72 were shot down. In another attack in Ukraine’s Sumy region, one person killed by Russian artillery fire as energy infrastructure was targeted. Other people were hospitalized, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said.
- Warning to West: Officials in Moscow again said long-range strikes would provoke further escalation between Russia and the West. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency Tass on Saturday that the US and British governments were pushing the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, toward “poorly controlled escalation.” Biden on Friday brushed off similar comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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POW exchange: Russian and Ukrainian officials announced on Saturday a prisoner swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates. It included 206 prisoners on both sides, including Russians captured in Ukraine’s incursion in the Kursk region. The total number of POWs exchanged this year stands at 1,994. Both sides released images of soldiers traveling to meet friends and family, with Zelensky commenting, “Our people are home.”
(More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)
