Biden has maintained a veto on allowing Kyiv to use long-range missiles on military targets in Russia, amid fears this could provoke Moscow into targeting Western military bases outside Ukraine, British newspaper The Telegraph reported.
In a report published on Monday entitled “Contesting Russia: Preparing for the Long-Term Russian Threat,” the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also called the U.S. Helsinki Commission, urged Biden to approve missile strikes inside Russia, arguing that nuclear threats should not hinder support for Kyiv.
The commission said: “Russia will continue to brandish its nuclear weapons to deter other countries from supporting Ukraine and to threaten Ukraine directly.”
“We should trust Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to... prevent more horrific Russian missile strikes on civilian targets.”
According to the U.S. Helsinki Commission, allowing Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia is a “commonsense” move that would help prepare the West to “contest Russia for the long term.”
It said that past warnings about crossing Russian “red lines” had not led to severe consequences.
The commission added: “Ukraine has shown through its drone strikes deep into Russia that its priority is slowing down Russia’s advance however possible.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has included long-range strikes as a key element of his “Victory Plan” to end the war. The hope is that disrupting Russia’s supply lines would weaken its forces, making them vulnerable to counter-attacks by Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has privately backed Ukraine’s request to expand the use of Storm Shadow missiles, but the weapons rely on a classified U.S. targeting system, meaning Biden must approve any attacks on Russian soil, The Telegraph reported.
