The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the west on key military targets inside Russia, with a decision understood to have already been made in private.
Speaking in Kyiv alongside the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, Blinken said the US had “from day one” been willing to adapt its policy as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed. “We will continue to do this,” he emphasised.
Blinken said he and Lammy would report back to their “bosses” – Joe Biden and Keir Starmer – after their talks on Wednesday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The foreign secretary suggested Iran’s dispatch of ballistic missiles to Moscow – revealed this week – had changed strategic thinking in London and Washington. It was a “significant and dangerous escalation”, he said.
He added: “The escalator here is Putin. Putin has escalated with the shipment of missiles from Iran. We see a new axis of Russia, Iran and North Korea.”
British government sources indicated that a decision had already been made to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia, although it is not expected to be publicly announced on Friday when Starmer meets Biden in Washington DC.
美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯给出了迄今为止最强烈的暗示，即白宫即将取消对乌克兰使用西方提供的远程武器攻击俄罗斯境内关键军事目标的限制，据了解，这一决定已经在私下做的。 布林肯与英国外交大臣大卫·拉米一起在基辅发表讲话时表示，美国“从第一天起”就愿意随着乌克兰战场局势的变化而调整其政策。 他强调，“我们将继续这样做。”布林肯表示，他和拉米将在周三与乌克兰总统泽连斯基会谈后向他们的“老板”乔·拜登和基尔·斯塔默汇报。 国务卿表示，本周透露的伊朗向莫斯科运送弹道导弹的行为改变了伦敦和华盛顿的战略思维。他说，这是一次“重大且危险的升级”。 他补充道：“这里的拱火者是普京。普京随着从伊朗运来的导弹而升级。我们看到了俄罗斯、伊朗和朝鲜的新轴心。英国政府消息人士表示，已经决定允许乌克兰对俄罗斯境内的目标使用“风暴之影”巡航导弹，不过预计周五斯塔默在华盛顿与拜登会面时不会公开宣布这一决定。
