Biden says giving Kyiv advanced weapons risks US alliances
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US would not provide Kyiv everything it wanted, including the Army Tactical Missile System.
PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden defended his reluctance to give Ukraine all the advanced weaponry it wants to fight off Russia’s invasion, saying the provision of longer-range missiles and other sophisticated gear risks straining America’s alliances in Europe, including Nato.
“The idea that we would give Ukraine material that is fundamentally different than is already going there would have a prospect of breaking up Nato and breaking up the European Union, and the rest of the world,” Mr Biden said at a White House news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We are going to give Ukraine what it needs to be able to defend itself, to be able to succeed, and succeed in the battlefield,” he said in answer to a Ukrainian journalist who asked why the US would not provide Kyiv everything it wanted, including the Army Tactical Missile System.
A weapons package that Mr Biden approved on Wednesday, as Mr Zelensky visited Washington on his first trip outside Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, includes a Patriot missile battery.
Kyiv has repeatedly asked for more advanced weapons, including longer-range missiles, that would have farther reach than its current artillery, including potentially into Russia. Moscow has warned that such weapons would be seen as Ukraine’s allies becoming directly involved in the war, risking escalation.
Some countries in Europe, including within the Nato alliance, have expressed concern about being drawn into a broader fight with Moscow. That is why Nato has refused, for example, to agree to Ukraine’s calls for months for a no-fly zone policed by Nato aircraft. Other nations in the alliance, including former communist countries such as Poland, are eager to stop Russian aggression at all costs.
“I have spent several hundred hours face to face with our European allies and the heads of state of those countries, and making the case as to why it was overwhelmingly in their interest that they continue to support Ukraine,” Mr Biden said. “They understand it fully, but they are not looking to go to war with Russia. They are not looking for a third world war.”
Despite tensions over whether and how quickly the US would supply more advanced weaponry, Mr Biden and Mr Zelensky showed warmth towards each other.
Asked earlier in the news conference what would happen after Ukraine received the first Patriot battery, Mr Zelensky responded: “After that, we will send another signal to President Biden that we would like to get more Patriots.”
The audience laughed.
“We are in war, I am really sorry,” he added.
Mr Biden cautioned that it would take some time before the first Patriot battery was ready for combat in Ukraine, as the country’s air-defence soldiers must first be trained to use it.
Even if it is one Patriot system, “it is a significant breakthrough”, Ukraine’s air defence force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in a television interview on Wednesday.
The battery would help the country defend against Russian ballistic missiles and “also help to strengthen air defence against cruise missiles and Russia’s jets”.
It would take less than six months for Ukraine’s soldiers to train to use the system, said the spokesman, declining to be more specific. BLOOMBERG
