Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is insisting that US President Joe Biden give Kiev approval to hit targets deep inside Russia. The move would be a major escalation in Washington’s proxy war against Moscow in Ukraine. 

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Zelensky has pushed President Biden to increase the range of US weapons sent to Ukraine and to lift restrictions on where those weapons can be used. 

Now that Zelesnky has received long-range missiles and F-16s from the West, he wants Washington’s permission to strike targets in Russia far from the border. “We talk about this every day with our partners. We persuade. We present arguments,” he said during his nightly address on Saturday. 

“We need the capabilities to truly and fully protect Ukraine and Ukrainians.” Zelensky continued, “We need both the permissions for long-range capabilities and your long-range shells and missiles.”

Additionally, Ukrainian officials met with US officials in Washington to discuss the matter. “We have explained what kind of capabilities we need to protect the citizens against the Russian terror that Russians are causing us, so I hope we were heard,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said in Washington on Friday. 

In the early months of the war, Zelensky requested long-range munitions to strike Russia from his Western backers, only to be rebuked out of fear it would lead to a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. 

Biden explicitly warned of the risks of a third world war and that the chance of nuclear war was higher now than the Cuban missile crisis. 

However, as the US and its Western allies have steadily increased support for Ukraine over the past two and a half years, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has not attacked a NATO country, leaders in the bloc have become less concerned about the Kremlin’s potential response.