No decision to allow Ukraine for using long-range missiles in war

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (BBC): UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer did not signal any decision on allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia after talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington.

Sir Keir said the pair had had a "productive" discussion on Ukraine that concentrated on "strategy", rather than a "particular step or tactic".

The White House said they had also expressed "deep concern about Iran and North Korea's provision of lethal weapons to Russia".

Early on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched over 70 Iranian-made drones across Ukraine overnight, and that his country needed more air defence and long-range capabilities "to protect life and our people".

"We are working on this with all Ukrainian partners," he said. Ahead of the talks at the White House, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western nations not to let Ukraine fire long-range missiles at Russia.

Putin said such a move would represent Nato's "direct participation" in the Ukraine war. But former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Nato should let Ukraine fire long-range missiles in Russia in spite of Putin's threats, adding that wrangling was just benefiting the Russian president.

"I'm just disappointed that it's yet again another tug of war around another capability," the former Conservative MP said.

Kurt Volker, former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations said Putin's comments were made to prevent further Western action.

"The reason Putin says those things is to achieve the result of deterring us from doing things - not that it has any bearing on what he's really going to do or really thinks," he told the Today programme.

Commenting on the debate over long-range missiles, he said the US "overplays the sense that this is a new red line that this would be so provocative to Russia that it would create some kind of new escalation".