Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the NATO summit on a quest: to undo the restrictions on United States-supplied weapons.
For now, the U.S. isn’t budging.
John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, told NOTUS that despite these pleas, there “has been no change to our policy.” Kirby reiterated that the White House is in conversation on a near-daily basis with Ukraine, trying to support its war against Russia.
“We want Ukraine to be able to claw back the territory that the Russians have tried to occupy,” Kirby said. “The president has given guidance for U.S. weapons to be used right over the border to address imminent threats, imminent targets.”
When asked Wednesday, before a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, what efforts were being made to change the rules for using U.S. weapons, Zelenskyy simply said, “We’re working on it.”
On Thursday, he was more explicit. “If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country, we need to release all restrictions,” he said. “I’ve spoken about it with partners, with U.K. leader, with United States president.”
Zelenskyy isn’t alone in this campaign.
“Allies need to step up their efforts,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs told reporters. “We need to discuss frankly, also the need to allow Ukrainians to use all the weapons without any restrictions.”
The U.K. is now allowing longer-range attacks, and many of the countries on the eastern front of NATO have drastically increased their spending and support for Ukraine. The United States remains a more complicated story.
President Joe Biden met with Zelenskyy and other supporting members Thursday to discuss the so-called Ukraine Compact, a pledge with 33 different members of NATO for long-term support in Ukraine’s fight.
“This compact knits all of these countries together, and it makes clear that we will continue to support Ukraine in this fight,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during his speech at the public forum portion of the summit. Sullivan pointed out that over 20 countries have signed their own bilateral agreements with Ukraine as part of this larger support effort.These bilateral agreements, along with a move to establish a new four-star general command at NATO headquarters, drastically increased NATO’s involvement in the conflict.
U.S. lawmakers have seen these moves as a way to ensure support for Ukraine past November. Because as Zelenskyy pushes to expand allowances on U.S. aid, lawmakers in Washington are contending with a very different political situation: the growing possibility that a new administration and political order, openly against sending aid to Ukraine’s war effort, could take power next year.
“You have that and you get them locked in, but then if you look at [the agreements], they are all basically the same, but it’s just keeping people locked in,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told NOTUS late last month after Biden signed a 10-year agreement to continue to support Ukraine.
Johnson has voiced support for Ukraine aid in Congress, even when up against pressure from his Republican conference. During a speech Monday, he repeatedly pointed to supporting Ukraine as a primary consideration of U.S. national security.
“Here’s the reality — if we don’t stop it there, it will come here. There’s no guarantee,” Johnson said. “We live under this false assumption, or, you know, false sense of security, that we would never have a war on our shores. But guess what? The enemy is here.”
Less likely, at least for now, is the prospect of the United States removing restrictions on the weapons it sends Ukraine.
Kirby pointed out that the eastern flank of NATO has received 100,000 troops in support of the NATO mission in response to the threat Russia poses.
Still, those countries want Ukraine to have more leniency with the weapons they’re given. And Zelenskyy says lifting weapons restrictions to strike Russia is the only path forward to survive.
“If we really want Ukraine on the map and not have Putin win, who has attacked half the planet, yes, we need to take concrete steps.”
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.