Using U.S. arms for long-range strikes into Russia no game changer, says Austin

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE (Reuters) - The use of donated U.S. weapons for long-range strikes into Russia would not turn the tide of the war for Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday, gently pushing back against Kyiv's wishes for arms restrictions to be lifted.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting at the U.S. air base in the western German town of Ramstein, Austin stressed that no specific weapon would be a game changer.

Russia has moved its glide bombs back behind the range of ATACMS missiles, he noted, while Ukraine itself has significant capabilities to attack targets well beyond the range of the British Storm Shadow cruise missile.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Sabine Siebold and Andrew Gray, Editing by Friederike Heine)