Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pressing the US to allow Kiev to launch attacks on Russian soil, far from the border, after a Ukrainian delegation met with senior officials in Washington yesterday.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Washington has given Kiev $50 billion worth of military aid, but has limited its use inside Ukrainian territory and to cross-border operations of a defensive nature.

In a video message, President Zelensky stressed that if the Ukrainian armed forces succeed in preventing the Russian bombings, they will take an important step in forcing Russia to seek “an end to the war and a just peace”. Appealing to the US, Britain, France and Germany, he said: “We need approval to use your long-range weapons, shells and missiles.” Without going into further details, he said his representatives “provided all the necessary details” to Ukraine’s allies.

Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to make a similar appeal next month when he travels to the US to meet US President Joe Biden and attend the annual UN General Assembly.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who is in Washington along with other Ukrainian officials, said in an interview with CNN that Kiev has highlighted that Russian air bases used as launching pads for attacks on Ukrainian cities are within range of the weapons systems. long range. “We have explained what kind of means we need to protect our citizens from Russian terrorism … I hope we have been heard,” he said.

On Friday, Umerov and the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, briefed US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the situation on the battlefields.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation that traveled to the US, Economy Minister Yulia Sviridenko, said in a post on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that she discussed the measures needed to restore the damage to her country’s energy infrastructure, which has been hit hard from the Russian attacks.