Kiev’s request for long-range weapons was brushed off by the White House, according to the New York Times
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky expressed frustration on Wednesday with the fact that classified details of his ‘victory plan’ in the conflict with Russia were leaked to the Western press.
The New York Times reported this week that Kiev had asked the US for Tomahawk cruise missiles in order to strike targets deep inside Russia. The paper’s sources described the request as “totally unfeasible.” Provision of such weapons, which have a range of up to 2,400 km, was described as being necessary to constitute part of the conventional deterrence forces requested by Zelensky.
Speaking to Western journalists in Kiev, Zelensky complained that the request for Tomahawks had become public knowledge.
“It was confidential information between Ukraine and White House,” he said, speaking in English. He interpreted the leak as meaning there is no confidentiality in communications with Washington.
Kiev asked for more long-range weapons on a promise that “we will use [them] only if Russia will not stop the war,” Zelensky said, but Western leaders told him that would be an escalation of the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the US and its allies that Moscow will consider any Western-facilitated strike deep inside Russia as an attack by the parties who supplied the weapons.
Zelensky claimed that the leak came after “many countries” supported his ‘victory plan’. However, numerous Western media reports and some officials have said that it was largely rejected. The proposal requires an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO and other measures that would increase Western involvement in the conflict.
The Ukrainian leader did not dispute the accuracy of the Times’ reporting. The remark came as he commented on the alleged deployment of North Korean troops in Russia, which Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied.
The Pentagon assessed this week that Pyongyang had sent as many as 10,000 troops for training and possible deployment against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk Region, where Kiev launched a cross-border incursion in August. US President Joe Biden has said that Ukrainians should engage the North Koreans “if they cross into Ukraine.”
Zelensky claimed that his country lacks “possibilities” to strike North Koreans inside Russia, adding that “it means that we can defend our land only when they destroy our land, when they are already on our land, when they occupied our land.”
The Ukrainian leader concluded his remarks with a question about what the US what would do “if 100,000 North Korean soldiers will come” to Ukraine, apparently misstating the figure cited by the Pentagon.
