Biden, Starmer set to meet as Ukraine pushes for easing gun restrictions

WASHINGTON — Ukraine’s push to ease restrictions on the use of weapons from the United States and Britain will be the subject of talks at the White House between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday.

Ukraine and many of its supporters in the U.S. and Europe want Biden to allow Kiev to use the weapons to strike military targets deeper in Russia, and there are signs Biden may change U.S. policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened that Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons would lead NATO to war with Moscow.

Two U.S. officials familiar with the weapons discussions said they believed Starmer would seek Biden’s approval to allow Ukraine to use British-made Storm Shadow missiles in expanded strikes on Russia. Biden’s approval is needed because Storm Shadow components are made in the U.S. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share the status of the private talks, said they believed Biden would be willing to do so.

Several U.S. officials said no announcement of a decision was expected on Friday.

Ukrainian officials renewed calls for Western-supplied long-range missiles against targets deeper inside Russia during a visit to Kiev by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

Blinken said there was “no doubt” Biden and Starmer would discuss the issue, noting that the United States had adjusted and “will adjust as necessary” as Russia’s battlefield strategy had changed.

Blinken said similarly in May, shortly before the U.S. allowed Ukraine to use American-supplied weapons just inside Russian territory. The distance allowed has been largely limited to cross-border targets deemed an imminent threat out of fear of further escalation.

Biden has also suggested that change could be coming. In a conversation with reporters this week about whether he was willing to ease gun restrictions in Ukraine, he said: “We’re working on that now.”

Putin said Thursday that authorizing long-range strikes “would mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries, are at war with Russia.” His remarks were consistent with a narrative the Kremlin has pushed since the beginning of the war, accusing NATO countries of de facto participation in the conflict and threatening to respond.

Starmer said on his way to the US on Thursday that Britain was not seeking conflict with Russia.

“Ukraine has the right to self-defense and, of course, we fully support Ukraine’s right to self-defense,” he added.

Russia on Friday accused six British diplomats of espionage and said it had extradited them. Starmer’s government has called the accusation baseless and linked it to the UK’s expulsion of Moscow’s defence attaché in London over spying allegations in May.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked U.S. military leaders and their allies to allow his forces to use Western weapons to attack Russian air bases and launchers far from the border, as Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and utilities ahead of winter.

“The war must become more difficult for Russia — that’s the only way to make them realize that it must end,” he wrote on social media on Friday.

Zelensky’s appeal has drawn support from U.S. and European security and diplomatic circles, including some former U.S. generals and diplomats, lawmakers and security analysts who say Russia’s previous threats of escalation to the West have turned out to be empty, and that U.S. arms restrictions are preventing Ukraine from gaining the momentum it needs on the battlefield.

Even a few Ukrainian strikes with heavier weapons against military targets deeper in Russia would further strain Russian logistics, troops and other resources, said George Barros, a security analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

Zelensky also wants Washington to provide him with more long-range weapons, including the army’s tactical missile system, known as ATACMS, for strikes on Russia.

Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman, said ATACMS would not address the main threat Ukraine faces from Russian long-range glide bombs fired from more than 300 kilometers (185 miles), beyond the range of ATACMS.

U.S. officials also believe they do not have enough weapons systems to deliver to Ukraine in numbers that will make a significant difference on the ground, one U.S. official said.

At a meeting of allied defense ministers last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe that providing Ukraine with long-range weapons systems would be a breakthrough, noting that Ukraine already had the ability to strike Russia with its own domestically produced systems, including drones.

Starmer, meeting Biden for the second time since his centre-left government was elected in July, said he was visiting Washington for strategic meetings focusing on Ukraine and the Middle East. Britain last week broke with the US by suspending some arms exports to Israel over the risk they could be used to break international law.

The White House talks were partly aimed at allowing Biden and Starmer to exchange views on the war in Ukraine, the faltering efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, mutual concerns over the Indo-Pacific region and other issues ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly later this month.

The White House has tried in recent days to put greater emphasis on the connection between the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East that erupted after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

The Biden administration said this week that Iran recently delivered short-range ballistic weapons to Russia to use against Ukraine. White House officials worry that the transfer would allow Russia to use more of its arsenal against targets far beyond the Ukrainian front lines, while Iranian warheads would be used against targets closer.

“This is obviously deeply troubling,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “And it certainly speaks to the way this partnership threatens European security and how it illustrates the destabilizing influence of Iran, which now extends far beyond the Middle East.”

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Ellen Knickmeyer and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.