The United States does not plan to announce any new policy on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles on Friday, the White House said.

At the same time, the White House spokesman said that the US “takes Vladimir Putin’s threats seriously.”

“There is no change in our view on giving Ukraine the ability to launch a long-range attack inside Russia,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “I wouldn’t expect any major announcements in that regard from the talks between US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday,” Kirby said.

Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are meeting at the White House today in the wake of this week’s diplomatic talks centered on whether the United States, Britain and France should give Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles to to strike targets deep in Russia. So far, these countries allow Ukraine to strike only military targets right in Russia’s border regions.

Britain and France are ready to allow strikes deeper into Russian territory with their own weapons, but are waiting for President Biden to agree, which US officials have said he is ready to do. But Biden remains reluctant to give Ukraine permission to use US weapons to strike deep in Russia, officials say.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Western allies to lift bans on using long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.

In this eventuality, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, threatened that such a development would mean that “NATO countries are at war with Russia”.

If this decision is made, it would mean nothing less than the direct involvement of NATO countries in the war in Ukraine. This would change the very nature of war. It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” Putin said.

In fact, the logic of escalation seems to be supported by the “war hawks” inside Russia as according to reports, the Russian president is accepting suggestions to adopt a tougher stance with regard to NATO countries as, as they argue, Moscow’s existing policy is not working .