Restrictions on long-range strikes inside Russia reveal West's unclear goals, ex-US commander says

The policy of not allowing Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia with long-range weapons, such as ATACMS missiles, means that the West has no "clearly defined objective," retired U.S. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges said on Aug. 31 at the Globsec Forum in Prague, attended by a Kyiv Independent reporter.

Kyiv has long argued that restrictions on the use of long-range weapons are stifling its war effort, while Washington claimed that allowing Ukraine to hit deep into Russian territory with its weapons could escalate the situation.

Ukraine has dismissed these arguments and has ramped up pressure to lift the ban in recent weeks amid the ongoing incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast. The White House has not budged on its position, despite some U.S. politicians backing Kyiv’s demands.

"This terrible policy which actually protects Russian airfields better than it protects Ukrainian civilians is a manifestation of the fact that we don't have a clearly defined objective," Hodges said.

According to the ex-U.S. commander, the Biden administration "failed the most important task — what do we want to accomplish."

"If we want Ukrainians to prevail, we have to let them bring the war to the Russian territory," said Karel Rehka, chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces.

When asked about Ukraine's ongoing Kursk Oblast incursion, Hodges said that this operation "woke people up," killing the myth that "Russia is inevitably going to win."

"I wish the Kremlin would declare total mobilization (in response to Kursk)... Then for sure people would say: What the hell are we doing in Ukraine."

Western countries have largely allowed Ukraine to use their arms in the Kursk incursion, but the U.S. and the U.K. have maintained their restrictions on the use of long-range missiles like ATACMS or Storm Shadow.

Ukraine’s Kursk incursion ‘demonstrates that Russia is at the limit of its capabilities,’ says former US NATO ambassador

″(Russia) can’t attack Ukraine and defend Russia at the same time, it has had to make a choice,” said Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO.

The Kyiv IndependentNate Ostiller