Ukraine to present Biden admin with targets it could hit in Russia, given the chance

Ukrainian officials are preparing to present a list of long-range targets in Russia to top U.S. national security officials that they think Kyiv’s military can hit if Washington were to lift its restrictions on U.S. weapons.

Ukraine is using the list as a last-ditch effort to convince Washington to lift the restrictions on U.S. weapons being used inside Russia. While Ukraine has previously provided the U.S. some of its potential targets in Russia, this list is supposed to be more tailored.

Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, and Andriy Yermak, senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will be in D.C. this week and plan to present the list to the administration during their discussions, according to three people familiar with Ukraine’s efforts.

The U.S. has said for months that lifting the restrictions won’t make a strategic difference in the war as Russia has moved its most important targets, including aircraft, back from the border and out of reach.

But Kyiv has identified several high-value targets that it can reach with U.S.-provided missiles, the people said. It hopes the list will bolster its campaign to convince President Joe Biden to change his mind.

“There should be no restrictions on the range of weapons for Ukraine, while terrorists have no such restrictions,” Zelenskyy said in a statement Monday. “Defenders of life should face no restrictions on weapons.”

All three people who talked to POLITICO were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive talks. The National Security Council and Pentagon both declined to comment.

The visit by Umerov and Yermak comes as Ukraine continues to press its incursion into the Russian border region of Kursk and grapples with the aftermath of Moscow’s massive missile attack on its energy grid.

Ukrainian officials have long lobbied the Biden administration to lift the restrictions on U.S. weapons so its military can more easily launch offensives inside Russia and push Russian forces back from the border. The administration has said since the beginning of the war it worries lifting the restrictions could provoke Russia to launch even more aggressive assaults on Ukraine.

While escalation is still a concern, the Biden administration has more recently been stressing its belief that there is little tactical advantage, given Russia moving assets out of range. The administration also assesses that Ukraine does not have enough Army Tactical Missile Systems — the long-range missiles it wants to use — to strike the high-value targets in Russia. Kyiv is using many of those missiles in their offensives inside Crimea — a battle the Biden administration assesses is going well for Ukraine. And the U.S. has a limited stockpile of ATACMs it can draw on to send Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials and lawmakers insist that the lifting of all restrictions is imperative to the country’s war effort, claiming it would give its military greater freedom to take the fight to Russia inside its own borders.

It is not clear exactly when Umerov and Yermak will arrive in Washington or what other meetings they plan to have while in the United States. On previous such trips, the Ukrainian officials have met with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

In a briefing with reporters Monday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there were “no changes” to U.S. policy with respect to the restrictions.

“This is not a new desire by President Zelenskyy by any stretch,” he said. “But as I've said many, many times, we'll keep the conversations with the Ukrainians going, but we're going to keep them private.”

Some Ukrainian lawmakers and officials say they’ve seen signs that some in the Biden administration are considering lifting the restrictions in the coming days. A Democratic lawmaker with knowledge of the conversations also said the administration was considering Kyiv’s request. The lawmaker was granted anonymity to speak more freely about the administration’s thinking.

The White House has not said that it is considering any plan to change its policy.

Zelenskyy and Biden spoke by phone on Friday, but did not specifically discuss the request to lift the restrictions, according to a U.S. official briefed on the call. The person was also granted anonymity to speak about sensitive negotiations.

But the two leaders did speak more broadly about Kyiv’s request that the U.S. send additional long-range weapons. They also spoke about Russia’s advances in Pokrovsk and Ukraine’s strategy for countering Moscow there while simultaneously trying to advance in Kursk.

Following the call, Biden announced a new $125 million military assistance package for Kyiv. On the same day, the U.S. also announced a slew of additional sanctions on Russia .

Kyiv and Washington are in talks for Biden and Zelenskyy to meet in-person at the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month, the U.S. official said.