US President Joe Biden on Monday ruled out the delivery of long-range missile launcher systems to Russia, despite repeated demands from Kyiv to obtain these weapons.
"We will not send to Ukraine missile systems capable of reaching Russia," Biden told reporters Monday.
This issue of extradition was raised in the past weeks, but without confirmation.
Ukrainian officials have sought longer-range systems known as Multiple Launch Missile Systems (MLRS), which can launch a barrage of missiles hundreds of miles away.
CNN and The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Biden administration is inclined to send this system and another system known as HIMARS, as part of a larger military aid package to Ukraine.
It was not clear what missile system Biden was referring to in his statements.
The Ukrainian government has urged the West to provide it with longer-range weapons so that it can turn the tide of the war, which is now in its fourth month.
US officials said sending such weapons was being considered.
Russian reply
For his part, Deputy Chairman of the Russian National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev described Biden's decision not to provide Kyiv with weapons capable of reaching Russia as rational.
Davos Forum
During the last Davos forum, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stressed that his country urgently needs mobile rocket launchers that provide it with a firepower equivalent to that of Russia.
"The battle for Donbass is very similar to the battles of World War II," Kuleba said.
After talks with government officials and businessmen at the World Economic Forum, he added that "some villages and cities no longer exist" in this region in southeastern Ukraine, which in recent days has witnessed heavy Russian bombing.
The minister explained that these villages and cities "have been reduced to rubble by the fire of Russian artillery and Russian rocket launchers."
Russia is better equipped than Ukraine in the field of heavy weapons, but Kuleba stressed that the biggest imbalance in the balance of military power between the two countries is related to missile launchers, and therefore Kyiv asked Washington to supply it with this weapon.
"This is the weapon we desperately need," he added.
The Ukrainian minister stressed that "countries that procrastinate in supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons must understand that every day they spend making decisions and evaluating various arguments, people are killed."
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- Agencies