Biden, Starmer meet as Russia warns over long-range missiles for Ukraine

WASHINGTON: The leaders of Britain and the United States meet Friday in Washington on whether to let Kyiv fire Western-provided long-range missiles into Russia—an option that has sent tensions soaring with Moscow.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to President Joe Biden comes with Kyiv increasingly pushing for permission to use the weapons—and secure Western help shooting down Russian missiles and drones.

But President Vladimir Putin has warned that giving Ukraine the green light to use long-range weapons would mean NATO was “at war” with Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s message was unambiguous: “We have no doubt that this statement has reached its recipients.”

British media reported that Biden, who is wary of provoking a nuclear conflict, was ready to let Ukraine deploy British and French missiles using US technology but not US-made missiles themselves.

Responding to Putin’s warning, Starmer told UK media travelling with him that “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away.”

In a sign of increasing tensions, Russia’s FSB security service announced on Friday that the accreditation of six British diplomats had been withdrawn and accused them of spying. But London dismissed the claims as “completely baseless” and indicated they were a tit-for-tat measure after it slapped new restrictions on Russian diplomats in May.

The talks come with Biden on his way out of office and November’s US election a toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Trump repeatedly refused to take sides on the war during a debate with Harris on Tuesday, saying only: “I want the war to stop.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he will meet Biden “this month” to present his “victory plan” on how to end two and a half years of war with Russia.

He also said Kyiv’s recent offensive into Russia’s border region of Kursk had “slowed” Moscow’s advance in eastern Ukraine and that there are currently 40,000 Russian troops fighting in the area.

But he accused the West of being too “afraid” to even raise the possibility of shooting down Russian missiles and Iranian drones, even though it was helping Israel to do so.

Starmer was set to meet Biden in the Oval Office at 4:30 pm (2030 GMT) but has no scheduled meetings at this stage with Trump or Harris, both of whom will be on the campaign trail on Friday.