Editor's note: The article was updated at 10:50 a.m. local time on May 17 with comments from President Volodymyr Zelensky to journalists in Kyiv on May 16.
Washington has not changed its position on potential Ukrainian strikes with U.S.-supplied weapons on Russian territory, even after Russia had launched its offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a press briefing on May 16.
U.S. officials have repeatedly said that they do not support or encourage Kyiv's strikes with American weapons at Russian territory, while Ukrainian officials are reportedly trying to convince Washington to lift this ban.
"We believe that the equipment, the capabilities that we are giving Ukraine, that other countries are giving to Ukraine should be used to take back Ukrainian sovereign territory," Singh said, adding that U.S. has made its requests on this "pretty public."
According to Singh, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin discussed with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov how Ukraine can best use the provided weapons.
"And we believe that is within Ukrainian territory," the spokesperson said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 16 that he believes "there should be no bans because this is not about a Ukrainian offensive using Western weapons on Russian territory. This is about defense."
"It's the same issue like with pre-emptive sanctions we talked about before the full-scale war... It's a warning," Zelensky told journalists in Kyiv.
The president also noted that Russia has established a "gray zone" area on its side of the border from which they evicted civilian population "for obvious reasons."
The U.S. has supplied Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles, which Ukraine reportedly used to strike Russian targets in occupied Crimea. Washington's restrictions, as described by Ukrainian officials, would prevent the replication of such an attack inside Russian territory.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on May 15 that Kyiv "has to make decisions for itself" when deciding how to use U.S.-supplied weapons but reiterated that Washington has not enabled or encouraged strikes outside of Ukraine.
The U.K. recently said that it does not oppose Ukraine using British-supplied weapons to strike directly at Russia. Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said earlier in May that several countries had sent weapons to Kyiv with no restrictions on strikes inside Russian territory.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
