Biden, Starmer set to meet as Ukraine pushes to ease gun restrictions

WASHINGTON — Ukraine’s move to ease U.S. and British arms restrictions will be discussed Friday in White House talks between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Ukraine and many of its supporters in the U.S. and Europe want Biden to let Kiev use the weapons to strike military targets deeper inside Russia, and there are signs that Biden may change U.S. policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened that Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons would put NATO at war with Moscow.

Two U.S. officials familiar with the weapons discussions said they believe Starmer will seek Biden’s approval to allow Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow missiles for expanded strikes on Russia. Biden’s approval is necessary because the Storm Shadow components are made in the U.S. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share the status of the private talks, said they believed Biden would be receptive.

No decision announcement was expected on Friday, several U.S. officials said.

During this week’s visit to Kyiv by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Ukrainian officials renewed their calls to use Western-supplied long-range missiles against targets further away from Russia.

Blinken said he had “no doubt” Biden and Starmer would discuss the issue, noting that the US has adapted and “will adjust as necessary” as Russia’s battlefield strategy has changed.

Blinken made similar remarks in May, shortly before the U.S. allowed Ukraine to use American-supplied weapons inside Russian territory. The range allowed was largely limited to cross-border targets deemed a direct threat, out of concern about escalating the conflict.

Biden has also hinted that change may be coming. In an exchange with reporters this week about whether he was ready to ease gun restrictions in Ukraine, he responded: “We’re working on that now.”

Putin said on Thursday that allowing long-range strikes “would mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries, are at war with Russia.” His comments were in line with the narrative the Kremlin has promoted since the war began, accusing NATO countries of de facto participation in the conflict and threatening a response.

Starmer said on Thursday, en route to the US, that Britain was not seeking conflict with Russia.

“Ukraine has the right to self-defense, and of course we fully support Ukraine’s right to self-defense,” he added.

On Friday, Russia accused six British diplomats of espionage and said it would expel them. Starmer’s government called the accusation baseless and linked it to Britain’s expulsion of Moscow’s defense attaché in London over espionage allegations in May.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed U.S. and allied military leaders to allow their forces to use Western weapons to target Russian air bases and launch sites far from the border, as Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and utilities ahead of winter.

“The war must become harder for Russia — that’s the only way to make them realize it must end,” he posted on social media Friday.

Zelenskyy’s appeal has won support in U.S. and European diplomatic and security circles, including some former U.S. generals and diplomats, lawmakers and security analysts. They argue that Russia’s previous threats of escalation against the West have proven hollow and that U.S. restrictions on weapons are making it impossible for Ukraine to gain the battlefield momentum it needs.

Even a few Ukrainian strikes with heavier weapons against military targets further from Russia would put more strain on Russian logistics, troops and other resources, said George Barros, a security analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

Zelenskyy also wants more long-range weaponry from Washington, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, for strikes on Russia.

Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman, said ATACMS would not be the answer to the main threat Ukraine faces: long-range Russian glide bombs, which are being fired from more than 300 kilometers (185 miles) away, beyond the range of ATACMS.

U.S. officials also do not believe they have enough weapons systems available to provide Ukraine with the numbers needed to make a substantial difference on the ground, one of the U.S. officials said.

During a meeting of allied defense ministers last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe that providing Ukraine with long-range weapons systems would be a game-changer. He noted that Ukraine has already been able to strike inside Russia with its own domestically produced systems, including drones.

Starmer, meeting Biden for the second time since his center-left government was elected in July, said he was visiting Washington for strategic meetings focusing on Ukraine and the Middle East. Britain diverged from the United States last week by suspending some arms exports to Israel over the risk they could be used to violate international law.

The White House talks were scheduled in part to help Biden and Starmer compare notes on the war in Ukraine, failed efforts to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, mutual concerns in the Indo-Pacific and other issues ahead of this month’s annual gathering of global leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

The White House has also sought in recent days to place greater emphasis on the nexus between the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, which was triggered after Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

The Biden administration said this week that Iran recently delivered short-range ballistic weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine, a transfer that White House officials fear will allow Russia to use more of its arsenal on targets far beyond the Ukrainian front lines while employing Iranian warheads on shorter-range targets.

“This is obviously deeply troubling,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “And it certainly speaks to the way this partnership threatens European security and illustrates that Iran’s destabilizing influence now reaches far beyond the Middle East.”

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Ellen Knickmeyer and Tara Copp in Washington contributed.