Lithuania’s foreign minister calls for Ukraine to be allowed to use arms freely

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ukraine should be able to freely use arms it has been provided, Lithuania’s foreign minister told Reuters on Thursday, adding he hoped Kyiv would be able to shoot further into Russia with weapons Washington announced it would deliver to Ukraine.

Arming Ukraine is one thing, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told Reuters in an interview, but he said it is not extremely efficient if Kyiv is not allowed to use the arms.

“The strategic goal that puts Ukraine in the strongest possible position requires to allow them to use the weaponry freely,” Landsbergis said.

Ukraine has been pressing the United States and other Western governments to authorize long-range strikes that it says will help counter Russia’s relentless aerial attacks on Ukraine.

Russia has warned that any decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range Western missiles would deepen what it called the direct involvement of the U.S. and Europe in the war and would trigger a response from Moscow.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced more than $8 billion in military assistance for Ukraine, which Landsbergis said was “huge.”

It includes the first shipment of a precision-guided glide bomb called the Joint Standoff Weapon, with a range of up to 81 miles (130 km). The range is further than current U.S.-furnished air-dropped glide bombs.

“I’m reading President Biden’s statement, and I’m seeing that there is a new type of rockets that are being delivered that are longer-range than the previous ones,” Landsbergis said.

“My hope is that it’s not a rocket that they should shoot from afar, from a distance to the front, that they would be allowed to use those rockets and shoot further out.”

A U.S. official earlier said Biden would not announce that Washington would let Ukraine use U.S. missiles to hit targets deeper in Russia.

Landsbergis said that while he has not seen the specifics of Kyiv’s “victory plan” to end the war, they have heard from Ukrainians that security guarantees have to be discussed.

Talks about including Ukraine in the common defense area of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have reemerged, he said, adding that Lithuania is very supportive of such a move and glad to have it back on the agenda.

“It has to happen,” Landsbergis said. “If you’re saying that, OK, we want Ukraine in a safe, secure position, without the risk that they will be attacked, you have to answer how. And, honestly, it’s not rocket science.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a visit to Washington on Thursday said it was important to secure Ukraine’s future in NATO, something he has long sought. But allies have stopped short of taking that step.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, John Irish and Mike Stone; editing by Jonathan Oatis)