Pressure builds on Biden to let Ukraine strike inside Russia using U.S. weapons

Let Ukraine use Western weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

That message, long a priority for Kyiv and its fiercest backers, is now being voiced by a growing number of Western leaders. The United States has so far remained unmoved by this pressure, putting it at odds with allies — and in the company of the Kremlin, which has warned against such a move.

But there are signs this could soon change.

The debate inside the Biden administration over the issue is ongoing, and some top officials back lifting the restrictions on how Ukraine uses weapons provided by Washington, two sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

That debate has gained urgency since Russia launched a new cross-border offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region earlier this month, and Kyiv has warned that it could also be massing troops for another incursion in neighboring Sumy.

Ukraine feels it has been left handicapped, arguing that the restrictions on its use of Western-supplied weapons have given Moscow an unfair advantage.

Russia “can use the military infrastructure on its territory for the war against Ukraine without any obstacles,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, a government research group.

“As a result, there is a powerful asymmetry,” Bielieskov, based in Kyiv, told NBC News on Wednesday. “This has been talked about for a long time. It’s just that the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region clearly showed this.”