President Joe Biden insists that no US weapons supplied to Ukraine will be used to attack the Russian capital or government buildings.
However, he would not immediately say whether any US-made missiles or weapons have already been used to invade Russia.
Biden has agreed to allow Kiev to use U.S.-made weapons across the border — although the authorization for use is limited to the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region.
Speaking to ABC News at the Normandy American Cemetery to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, the president expressed concern that the new move would lead to an attack by Ukraine on Moscow or on the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed overnight that supplying “highly precise weapons to Ukraine for attacks on Russian territory” is a direct participation in this war.
President Joe Biden stressed that US-made weapons that Ukraine may use near its border with Russia will not be used to attack Moscow or the Kremlin
“Does that worry you?” ABC host David Muir asked Biden.
‘I have known him for over forty years. He’s been worrying me for forty years. He is not a decent man,” Biden said of Putin. “He’s a dictator and he’s struggling to make sure he keeps his country together while keeping this attack going.”
“We’re not talking about giving weapons to attack Moscow, to attack the Kremlin, to attack against – just across the border, where they receive significant fire from conventional weapons used by the Russians to attack Ukraine to go in and kill Ukrainians,” Biden clarified.
The full interview with Biden will air on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir program on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Since Russia invaded in February 2022 and began the now two-and-a-half-year conflict in the region, Biden has signed a whopping $175 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Biden is in France this week to commemorate the 1944 Storming of Normandy – an Allied attack 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 blockbuster film which was set in Normandy, France and depicted D-Day.
Biden authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons near its border with Russia and in the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region, which Putin claims is “direct participation in war.” Pictured: US weapons arrive in Ukraine in January
Biden will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in France on Thursday
During the president’s trip to Europe Thursday, Biden plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the ongoing war effort in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Biden told ABC News that Ukraine is only “authorized to be used near the border if it is used on the other side of the border to attack specific targets in Ukraine.”
“We do not authorize attacks up to 200 miles into Russia, and we do not authorize attacks on Moscow, on the Kremlin,” he stressed.