US aims to improve Ukraine's 'strategic position' in war before Biden's term ends, WSJ reports
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration aims to improve Ukraine's "strategic position" on the front line as much as possible before his presidential term expires this January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 12, citing an undisclosed senior U.S. official.
The news came days after the Biden administration reportedly sent a classified report to Congress on its strategy for the war in Ukraine. No details of the plan are available at the moment.
The White House is discussing how best to help Kyiv over the next four months, regardless of who wins the election, the WSJ wrote.
Decisions include potentially lifting some restrictions on the use of long-range Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia, a move the details of which Biden is reportedly finalizing.
The U.S. president's top aides "have no illusions" that Ukraine will be able to win the war before the end of Biden's term, but they are not pushing Kyiv to hold peace talks with Russia or "trying to dictate" battlefield plans, U.S. officials told the newspaper.
"(The goal is to) improve Ukraine's strategic position to the greatest extent possible between now and the end of the term," a senior administration official said.
According to U.S. officials, the Biden administration wants Ukraine to focus on halting the Russian advance in the country's east along current battle lines. They are concerned that by sending troops to carry out an operation in Russia's Kursk Oblast, Kyiv has "spread its forces too thin and left itself vulnerable in the east," the WSJ reported.
Russia recently launched a counterattack in the embattled Russian region, which has been partially held by Ukrainian forces since the start of the cross-border incursion on Aug. 6.
While Moscow claimed to have recaptured 10 settlements as of Sept. 12, the Pentagon said that the counteroffensive against Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast is "marginal" at this stage.
Speaking of Russia's counterattack, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "everything is going according to our plan."
The president also said earlier that the seized territories during the Kursk operation are part of Kyiv's "victory plan," which he wants to present to the U.S. in September.
Chris York
