US President-elect Donald Trump has criticised President Joe Biden’s recent decision to permit Ukrainian forces to use American long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory, and suggested that he may reverse the policy when he takes office.
Trump on Monday said that the decision made last month by Biden was “stupid”, and expressed anger that his incoming administration had not been consulted. Biden loosened restrictions to give Kyiv long-sought permission to use the US-provided Army Tactical Missile System to strike Russian positions hundreds of miles from its border.
“I don’t think that should have been allowed, not when there’s a possibility — certainly not just weeks before I take over,” Trump said during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“Why would they do that without asking me what I thought? I wouldn’t have had him do that. I think it was a big mistake,” he added.
Trump suggested the move should have been delayed until after his inauguration on 20 January, adding: “I might (reverse it). I think it was a very stupid thing to do.”
The White House defended the move, with national security spokesperson John Kirby stating that the decision was the result of months of deliberations, initiated long before the election.
“All I can assure you is that in the conversations we’ve had with them since the election, and we’ve had at various levels, we have articulated to them the logic behind it, the thinking behind it, why we were doing it,” Kirby said later on Monday.
Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been scrutinised since his 2016 US presidential campaign, when he urged Russia to locate and release missing emails deleted by his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Trump publicly sided with Putin over US intelligence officials regarding Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election to support him, and he has previously praised the Kremlin leader, describing him as “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine.
The US President-elect’s remarks come as Biden pushes through military aid for Ukraine in his final weeks in office, amid concerns that Trump’s presidency could alter the trajectory of US support for Kyiv.
Trump reiterated his call for negotiations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin to end the war, though he appeared to acknowledge the complexity of achieving a resolution.
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“I think the Middle East is going to be in a good place,” Trump stated, referring to the conflict in Gaza and an unsettled Syria following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. “I think actually more difficult is going to be the Russia-Ukraine situation,” he added.
Trump refused to say whether he has spoken to Putin since the election.
Biden’s decision to loosen restrictions on Kyiv’s use of the US-supplied weapons came amid mounting concerns over Russia’s deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to retake territory lost to Ukraine this year, particularly in the Kursk border region.
It also followed Russia’s first use of a lethal new intermediate-range ballistic missile, which US intelligence predicts could be deployed against Ukraine again soon.
Putin has warned NATO allies that future strikes could target countries supporting Ukraine’s use of longer-range missiles inside Russia.
Zelenskyy, who met with Trump in Paris earlier this month, continues to urge Western leaders to maintain military support for Ukraine.
Biden’s policy shift followed months of pressure from Zelenskyy and other allies, who argued that the US restrictions had made it impossible for Ukraine to prevent Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
As the nearly three-year war continues, both Russia and Ukraine are competing for battlefield leverage to strengthen their positions ahead of any future negotiations.
