Ukrainian defense minister tells CNN ‘I hope we were heard’ after presenting list of targets inside Russia to US officials

By Michael Conte and Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) — Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told CNN the Biden administration is still considering his request to lift restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons to strike deeper inside Russian territory and confirmed he’d presented a list of targets in meetings with senior officials in Washington on Friday

“We have explained what kind of capabilities we need to protect the citizens against the Russian terror that Russians are causing us, so I hope we were heard,” Umerov said in an interview with CNN’s Alex Marquardt on “The Situation Room.”

Despite repeated requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the US is not currently expected to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).

“You’ve heard us say that the Ukrainians can use US security assistance to defend themselves from cross-border attacks, in other words counterfire. But as it relates to long-range strike, deep strikes into Russia, our policy has not changed,” said Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder on Tuesday.

Ukraine only has a limited supply of US-provided long-range missiles, and the US has made it clear that Kyiv should not expect another significant delivery of ATACMS because of the finite number in US inventories and the long production time of the weapon, according to a US official.

Speaking before the meeting between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Umerov, the US official said many of Ukraine’s high value targets in Russia are outside the range of ATACMS. Russia’s military has pulled its high value military assets far away from the front line, including the aircraft launching glide bombs that have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian targets.

But Umerov pushed back on such assessments, saying Ukraine has presented the US a list of targets they would use ATACMS to strike.

“We are showing that the airfields that they are using to hit our cities are within the range of deep strikes,” Umerov said on CNN.

Ukraine has used its existing supply of ATACMS to target high-value Russian assets in occupied Crimea, including air defenses, ammo depots and airfields. The entire Crimean Peninsula falls within range of ATACMS, making it a prime area to use the US-manufactured missile, the US official said.

Umerov said Ukraine is pushing to lift the ATACMS restrictions to protect Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.

“They’re killing our citizens. That’s why we want to deter them, we want to stop them, we don’t want [to] allow their aviation to come closer to our borders to bomb the cities,” said Umerov.

The US remains focused on critically needed air defenses, which the Biden administration has provided in nearly every military aid package. The US has also placed Ukraine at the top of the priority list for air defenses, the US official said, diverting $2 billion in air defense assets to Kyiv that was originally slated to go to other countries.

Umerov also denied that the firing of the Ukrainian Air Force commander was connected to the death of one of Ukraine’s top pilots when a US-made F-16 fighter jet crashed just days earlier.

“I would probably say this is a rotation,” said Umerov “This is two separate issues… at this stage, I would not connect them.”

Zelensky did not say whether his decision to fire Mykola Oleshchuk was related to the F-16 crash on Monday, but said the command level of the Air Force needed to “strengthen.”

Umerov called the death of the pilot “unfortunate” and said that Ukraine is investigating what happened.

“We’re analyzing what has happened,” said Umerov. “We’ve also opened this file to our partners so they are also analyzing this and investigating along with us.”

With all eyes on the Ukrainian incursion into the Russian oblast of Kursk, Umerov said Ukraine is more focused on the “capabilities” that area allows them rather than holding the Russian territory to trade for land Russia has captured from Ukraine.

“We are focused to increase our capabilities to withstand, to repel the Russians from the temporary occupied territories,” said Umerov.

Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Friday that Ukrainian forces have advanced up to two kilometers (about 1.2 miles) further into Kursk over the last 24 hours.

“Over the [past] day, our troops advanced up to 2 kilometers in some areas, taking control of 5 square kilometers of the territory,” Syrskyi told Zelensky and other officials in a staff meeting.

But as Ukraine pushes further into Kursk, Russian forces are slowly gaining ground in eastern Ukraine, inching toward the city of Pokrovsk, a strategic city that sits on a key supply road between military hubs. The city forms the backbone of Ukraine’s defenses in the area, a valuable prize for the Russian military, but one the Kremlin is pursuing at an extremely high cost. The US official said Russia is suffering 1,000 casualties a day as they grind forward in eastern Ukraine, the highest casualty rate of the conflict.

Zelensky has said he intends to show President Joe Biden a plan for victory at the United Nations General Assembly in September, as well as to presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

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