#longrangeatacms

[alivewithclive]

Another step the Biden administration is taking to provide Ukraine with leverage for future negotiations. 🇺🇦👏💙💛🙏🇺🇸

#Repost@kyivindependent_official with @use.repost_ . . . U.S. President Joe Biden is quietly asking the U.S. Congress to greenlight an additional $24 billion in assistance to Ukraine and to replenish provided weapons before he leaves office, Politico Pro reported on Nov. 26, citing an obtained document.

The news comes amid the Biden administration’s efforts to ship in as much aid to Ukraine as possible before Donald Trump, who has criticized military support for Kyiv, takes office in January.

Roughly $16 billion of the sum would be used to restock U.S. arsenals, while the remaining $8 billion would go to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), the outlet wrote. The USAI is a Pentagon-led program for supplying arms to Ukraine through contracts with U.S. defense companies.

Two congressional sources confirmed the information for Politico and said that Congress received the request on Nov. 25.

The White House suggested that Congress could include the assistance in its effort to avert a government shut down next month, according to the document obtained by Politico.

The report aligns with earlier statements from Biden’s team that the White House would seek Congress’ approval for additional aid for Ukraine in 2025.

In recent days, the Biden administration has made a series of decisions aimed at giving Kyiv leverage in future negotiations. These steps included approving the delivery of anti-personnel mines and granting permission for Ukraine to launch U.S.-made long-range ATACMS at targets within Russia.

The request for additional funding has already received pushback from critics of Washington's pro-Ukraine policy.

Republican Senator and Trump's ally Mike Lee said that "Congress must not give him (Biden) a free gift to further sabotage President Trump’s peace negotiations on the way out the door."

Trump said he would seek to get the U.S. "out" of the war and bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table. While the details of his plan remain unclear, some reports indicate it might entail Ukraine ceding territory and at least temporarily foregoing its NATO aspirations.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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[alivewithclive]

“The targets on the list are within the range of long-range missiles, and Kyiv insists on lifting restrictions on the use of ATACMS to protect its people and infrastructure.” ~ Ukrainian Defense Minister, Rustem Umerov 🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇸

#Repost @kyivindependent_official with @use.repost . . . Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said in an Aug. 30 interview that he had submitted to senior U.S. officials a list of targets that Ukraine wants to hit with U.S.-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles in Russia.

The news came as a Ukrainian delegation arrived in Washington to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other Western officials.

Kyiv has long argued that restrictions on the use of long-range weapons are stifling its war effort, while Washington claimed that allowing Ukraine to hit deep into Russian territory with its weapons could escalate the conflict.

Ukraine has dismissed these arguments and has ramped up pressure to lift the ban in recent weeks amid the ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast. The White House has not budged on its position, despite some U.S. politicians backing Kyiv’s demands.

“We have explained what kind of capabilities we need to protect the citizens against the Russian terror that Russians are causing us, so I hope we were heard,” Umerov told CNN.

According to the minister, the list includes airfields used by the Russian army to launch strikes against population centers across Ukraine.

The targets on the list are within the range of long-range missiles, and Kyiv insists on lifting restrictions on the use of ATACMS to protect its people and infrastructure, Umerov added.

"They’re killing our citizens. That is why we want to deter them, we want to stop them, we don’t want [to] allow their aviation to come closer to our borders to bomb the cities,” the minister said.

In June the U.S. permitted Ukraine to strike Russian military targets just across the border but maintained its ban on attacks deep inside Russia with long-range weapons like ATACMS.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine’s capture of the Russian town of Sudzha, located less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Ukraine, shows that Western fears of Russian "red lines" are groundless.

Western countries have largely allowed Ukraine to use their arms in the Kursk incursion, but the U.S. and the U.K. have maintained their restrictions on the use of long-range missiles like ATACMS.

Photo: Valerii Zaluzhnyi/Telegram

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