Ukraine has not yet received permission from US to strike deep into Russia - Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: Getty Images)
Ukraine has been trying to convince the United States to allow it to strike deep into Russia with American weapons. That's important because all allies waited for the US to make decisions, stated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his interview with Fareed Zakaria.
“Everybody's looking [at] the decision of the United States. Everybody's waiting for such decisions. After that, they make decisions. It's true. So we wanted very much to use these weapons and just to attack these jets on the military bases, not civilian infrastructure,” the president explained.
At the same time, he confirmed that Ukraine simply wants to be able to attack the bases used to bomb Ukrainian territory.
“These jets, from there they used not only missiles... they used, per month, four thousand guided aerial bombs, just on the east of our territory, four thousand bombs. And these bombs and missiles are hitting Ukrainian civilians, schools, energies, universities. All our energy infrastructure, they destroyed 80%. By these guided bombs,” the President emphasized.
At the same time, the head of Ukraine noted that during meetings with his partners, he had already informed them that they had waited too long.
“Now Russia begins to move their jets from 100, 150 kilometers, 300, to 500. After that, I will tell you that now we need more permits,” the president emphasized.
Asked whether Ukraine currently had permission to conduct deep strikes against Russia, Zelenskyy said no.
Strikes against Russia
Ukraine has long been using the weapons of its partners to defend itself against the Russian Federation. However, during the transfer of weapons, the partners set a condition for Kyiv that their weapons could not be used to strike Russia.
Over the past few months, Ukraine has been actively communicating with its partners to obtain such permission. However, so far, it has been unsuccessful. Later this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will discuss with US President Joe Biden the lifting of the restriction on the use of long-range missiles.
