The 46th US President appeared set to ease tensions between Washington and Moscow on Monday amid concerns about the potential deployment of long-range missiles. The White House had reportedly been mulling over pleas from Kyiv to hand over multiple-launch rocket systems.
However, Mr Biden told reporters yesterday: “We are not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.”
The multiple-launch rocket systems can have a range of up to 185miles.
But others use rockets with shorter ranges of between 20 and 40miles.
According to the Guardian, the meaning behind Mr Biden’s remark remains unclear.
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A US official also said on Monday: “MLRS is under consideration, but nothing is on the table with long-range strike capabilities.”
The Times reports that MLRS has been a top priority for Ukraine as Kyiv seeks to stem the Russian advance in the east.
However, the Kremlin has previously warned against such a move.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that supplying weapons capable of hitting Russia would be a “serious step towards unacceptable escalation”.
“Brigade and battalion commanders likely deploy forwards into harm’s way because they are held to an uncompromising level of responsibility for their units’ performance.
“Similarly, junior officers have had to lead the lowest level tactical actions, as the army lacks the cadre of highly trained and empowered non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who fulfil that role in Western forces.
“The loss of large proportion of the younger generation of professional officers will likely exacerbate its ongoing problems in modernising its approach to command and control.
“More immediately, battalion tactical groups (BTGs) which are being reconstituted in Ukraine from survivors of multiple units are likely to be less effective due to a lack of junior leaders.
“With multiple credible reports of localised mutinies amongst Russia’s forces in Ukraine, a lack of experienced and credible platoon and company commanders is likely to result to a further decrease in morale and continued poor discipline.”