Biden says ending ban on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons being worked out

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday (10 September) that his administration was "working that out now" when asked if Washington would lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of long range weapons in its war against Russia.

The US has been reluctant to supply or sanction the use of weapons that could strike targets deep inside in Russia for fear it would escalate the conflict.

Kyiv's other allies have been supplying weapons, but with restrictions on how and when they can be used inside Russia, out of concern such strikes could prompt retaliation that draws NATO countries into the war or provokes a nuclear conflict.

Sources told Reuters last week that the US was close to an agreement to give Ukraine such weapons, but that Kyiv would need to wait several months as the US works through technical issues ahead of any shipment.

Blinken expected in Kyiv

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in Ukraine on Wednesday, where he will meet with senior government officials at what he said was a critical moment for supporting the country in its fight against Russia's invasion.

The top US diplomat, who is traveling to Ukraine alongside Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, said he will use his visit to hear directly from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others what Kyiv's current goals in the war are and what Washington can do to help it achieve them.

"I think it’s a critical moment for Ukraine in the midst of what is an intense fall fighting season with Russia continuing to escalate its aggression," Blinken said in London at a news conference with Lammy.

The visit also comes a day after Blinken in London said Russia has received ballistic missiles from Iran and will likely use them in Ukraine within weeks, warning that cooperation between Moscow and Tehran threatens wider European security.

The deepening military cooperation between Iran and Russia is a threat for all of Europe, Blinken said, and added that Washington had privately warned Iran that providing ballistic missiles to Russia would be "a dramatic escalation." The US issued sanctions on Iran later on Tuesday over the transfer.

Change of tactics by Ukraine?

Ukraine targeted the Russian capital on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far, killing at least one and wrecking dozens of homes in the Moscow region and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow.

Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, said it had destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones as they swarmed over the Moscow region, which has a population of more than 21 million, and 124 more over eight other regions.

At least one person was killed in Ramenskoye, near Moscow, Russian authorities said. Three of Moscow's four airports were closed for more than six hours and almost 50 flights were diverted.

The Ramenskoye district, some 50 km southeast of the Kremlin, has a population of around a quarter of a million people, according to official data.

More than 70 drones were also downed over Russia's Bryansk region and tens more over other regions, Russia's defence ministry said. There was no damage or casualties reported there.

As Russia advances in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv has taken the war to Russia with a cross-border attack into Russia's western Kursk region that began on 6 August and by carrying out increasingly large drone attacks deep into Russian territory.

Drone war

The war has largely been a grinding artillery and drone war along the 1,000 km heavily fortified front line in southern and eastern Ukraine involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Moscow and Kyiv have both sought to buy and develop new drones, deploy them in innovative ways, and seek new ways to destroy them - from using shotguns to advanced electronic jamming systems.

Both sides have turned cheap commercial drones into deadly weapons while ramping up their own production and assembly to attack targets including tanks and energy infrastructure such as refineries and airfields.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to insulate Moscow from the grinding rigours of the war, has called Ukrainian drone attacks that target civilian infrastructure such as nuclear power plants "terrorism" and has vowed a response.

Until now Moscow and other big Russian cities have largely been insulated from the war.

Russia itself has hit Ukraine with thousands of missiles and drones in the last two-and-a-half years, killing thousands of civilians, wrecking much of the country's energy system and damaging commercial and residential properties across the country.

Ukraine says it has a right to strike back deep into Russia, though Kyiv's Western backers have said they do not want a direct confrontation between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine about Tuesday's attacks. Both sides deny targeting civilians.

Tuesday's attack follows drone attacks Ukraine launched in early September chiefly targeting Russia's energy and power facilities.

Authorities in the Tula region, which neighbours the Moscow region to its north, said drone wreckage had fallen onto a fuel and energy facility but that the "technological process" of the facility was not affected.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)