Anything Zelensky had to say Thursday at the close of the NATO summit in Washington was overshadowed by President Biden's verbal flub where he introduced the Ukrainian leader as "President Putin".
But among the more interesting statements of Zelensky was the demand for his Western backers, especially the US, to lift all restrictions on arms used to attack inside Russian territory.
"If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations," Zelensky said while standing alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in the summit's closing session.
The Ukrainian president argued that this is crucial for "having Ukraine on the map" and not allowing Russia to "attack half of the planet."
"That is a crazy question why we can’t answer and attack these… military bases from where these guided bombs from jets or missiles came, targeted us and killed our children," Zelensky continued, clearly criticizing his own more powerful backers.
So far the White House has greenlighted using US-weapons against Russian territory from which its forces are attacking, thus confining strikes to not far inside Russia's border.
President Biden at his evening press conference responded to Zelensky's words, based on a reporter's question, and showed an unwillingness to change policy (at least for now) based on Kiev's demands.
Referencing his national security and defense advisers, Biden said:
"If he had the capacity to strike Moscow, strike the Kremlin, would that make sense?" Biden said of Zelenskyy.
He later added, "We’re making it on a day-to-day basis... how far they should go in" to Russian territory.
Thus he did acknowledge that this dangerous, escalatory policy which threatens to draw Washington directly into the fight could change at any moment.
.Join in on more popular conversations.
