President Joe Biden insists that no US weapons provided to Ukraine will be used to attack Russia’s capital or government buildings.
However, he did not directly say whether American-made missiles or weapons have already been used to attack inside Russia.
Biden approved allowing kyiv to use American-made weapons across the border, although the authorization for use is restricted to the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region.
Speaking to ABC News at the Normandy American Cemetery on Thursday on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the president addressed concerns that this new measure would lead to a Ukrainian attack on Moscow or the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said overnight that the supply of “high-precision weapons to Ukraine by the United States for attacks on Russian territory is direct participation in this war.”
President Joe Biden insisted that the American-made weapons that Ukraine is authorized to use near the border with Russia will not be used to attack Moscow or the Kremlin.
‘Does that worry you?’ ABC anchor David Muir asked Biden.
‘I have known him for more than 40 years. It has worried me for 40 years. “He is not a decent man,” Biden said of Putin. “He is a dictator and he is fighting to make sure he keeps his country together while he continues this attack.”
‘We’re not talking about giving them weapons to attack Moscow, to attack the Kremlin, to attack… right across the border, where they are taking significant fire from conventional weapons used by the Russians to go into Ukraine to kill Ukrainians. ‘Biden clarified.
The full interview with Biden will air Thursday at 6:30 pm on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir.
Since Russia invaded the region in February 2022, kicking off two and a half years of conflict in the region, Biden has approved a whopping $175 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
Biden is in France this week to commemorate the 1944 assault on Normandy, an attack by Allied forces that led to the fall of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Along with world leaders and politicians, Saving Private Ryan star Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg also attended the ceremonies in Normandy, 25 years after the release of the hit film set in Normandy, France, and depicting the day D.
Biden authorized Ukraine to use American-made weapons near the border with Russia and in the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region, which Putin said is “direct participation in the war.” In the photo: American weapons arrive in Ukraine in January
Biden to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in France on Thursday
During the president’s trip to Europe on Thursday, Biden plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss ongoing war efforts in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Biden told ABC News that Ukraine is only “authorized to be used near the border when it is used across the border to attack specific targets in Ukraine.”
“We do not authorize attacks 200 miles inside Russia and we do not authorize attacks against Moscow, against the Kremlin,” he insisted.