Senior White House official doesn't rule out extending authorisation to use US weapons

John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House, has not ruled out the possibility of extending authorisation for Ukraine to use US-delivered weapons in the future and stressed that everything will depend on the situation on the battlefield.

Source: Kirby at a briefing, reported by Holos Ameryky (Voice of America)

Details: When asked what kind of extensions to the authorisation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces could be discussed, Kirby added that he did not want to get ahead of "decisions that haven’t been made."

Quote from Kirby: "As you well know, every step of this war  – as the war has evolved, the battlefield conditions have changed, we have evolved and we have changed our support to Ukraine.  And that’s – I wouldn’t expect that that general approach is going to be any different in coming weeks and months.  We’ll see where things go and what the Ukrainians need. 

I mean, look, who can blame President Zelenskyy for wanting more stuff and more ability to use that stuff as his country continues to come under attack and as they particularly face a concerted  – a still-concerted effort by Russia to endanger Kharkiv, one of their most important cities in the north? 

And so we’ll have those talks, we’ll have those conversations with the Ukrainians.  Absolutely, we will.  And whether it leads to any additional policy changes, I can’t say at this point, but we’re not going to turn our back on what Ukraine needs.  And we’re going to continue to try to, again, evolve our support to them as the battlefield evolves as well."

Background:

• Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked US President Biden but stressed that "this is not enough." Zelenskyy said that it was necessary to expand the part of the Russian territory where Ukraine was allowed to strike with US-supplied weapons.
• For his part, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on the last day of his trip to Europe that the current authorisation might not be the last for Kyiv.

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