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A devastating Russian missile strike on a university and hospital in Poltava has left 50 dead and over 200 injured. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Parliament has approved the creation of a new military branch dedicated to unmanned technologies, signaling a shift in warfare strategy.

NYT: Biden faces pressure to allow Ukraine longer-range strikes on Russia

nyt biden faces pressure allow ukraine longer-range strikes russia us president joe

As world leaders gather for the annual United Nations General Assembly, President Biden is facing increasing pressure to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of weapons, the New York Times reports. Key allies are urging the US to allow Ukraine to use longer-range weapons to strike bases deeper inside Russia.

Despite Ukraine’s appeals amid escalated Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities, Western countries, including the US and the UK, have restricted Ukraine’s use of their long-range weapons like ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles to prevent deep strikes inside Russia, allegedly aiming to avoid escalation.

Finland’s new president, Alexander Stubb, and NATO’s departing secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, are among those calling for a change in policy. Stubb, who will speak for all Nordic countries at the UN, told the New York Times,

“I call upon our allies in the global West, including the United States, to allow Ukraine to fight without one hand tied behind its back and to lift those restrictions.”

The push comes as Ukraine is slowly losing ground to Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region. Russia continues to attack Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including electricity and heating plants, from a distance as winter approaches.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine is expected to present what he calls a “victory plan” for Biden to examine during the UN meeting.

Biden has been reluctant to grant permission for longer-range strikes, concerned about escalating the conflict and risking direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. However, Putin has not retaliated militarily against the West despite NATO countries gradually increasing their arms supplies to Kyiv, despite Russia’s threats before the approval of supplies of each Western weapon, such as tanks, missiles, and fighter jets.

Stoltenberg told CNN,

“Ukraine has the right for self-defense and that includes striking legitimate military targets on the territory of the aggressor, Russia.” He added that NATO countries “have the right to provide the weapons that they are using to do so without us becoming a party to the conflict.”

Both Stubb and Stoltenberg noted that various allied “red lines” had already been crossed with the provision of advanced weapons systems to Ukraine, including Leopard II battle tanks, Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missiles, longer-range artillery, and American-made F-16 fighter jets.

Frederiksen: Let’s end the red lines discussion, Russia crossed most important one, entering Ukraine

Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has also pushed Biden to allow the use of longer-range weapons like Anglo-French Storm Shadow/Scalp to hit bases farther into Russia.

The debate over weapons restrictions comes as the UN faces calls for reform. Stubb plans to propose an expansion of the UN Security Council and elimination of the single-country veto, “which makes the Security Council dysfunctional,” during his address at the General Assembly.

Russia vetoed all UNSC resolutions on Ukraine amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.

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