Ukraine on Thursday urged NATO allies to lift restrictions on its use of long-range weapons against targets in Russia, saying that would be "game-changer" in its war with Moscow, while China slammed NATO criticism of its support for Russia as biased and malicious.
NATO members issued a declaration in support of Ukraine at a summit in Washington on Wednesday, promising additional aid and pledging to back its "irreversible path" to NATO membership.
At a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg before a meeting with the 32 NATO states on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies to preserve their unified support of Ukraine and said new aid had to be delivered quickly.
"If we want to win, if we want to prevail, to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations," he said.
US President Joe Biden told Zelenskiy ahead of an earlier bilateral meeting: "We will stay with you, period."
Zelensky's cabinet chief Andryi Yermak told a public forum Russia had no restrictions on its use of weapons and it would be "a real game-changer" if Ukraine's allies could lift all limits on the use of those they supply to Ukraine.
NATO members have taken different approaches to how Ukraine can use weapons they donate. Some have made clear Kyiv can use them to strike targets deep inside Russia while the United States has taken a narrower approach, allowing its weapons to be used only just inside Russia's border against targets supporting Russian military operations in Ukraine.
The United States and its allies have used this week's summit to try to project unity in the face of what they see as a rising threat to Europe from Russia and China.
However, NATO member Hungary said ahead of a meeting of NATO members with partners from the so-called Indo-Pacific Four - Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea - that it does not want NATO to become an "anti-China" bloc, and will not support it doing so.
Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also told Hungarian state television that Ukraine's admission to the military alliance would weaken unity in the group.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban irked other NATO members with surprise visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing in the past two weeks on a self-styled "peace mission". He and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will meet on Thursday at the latter's Florida home, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
Orban's meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin in particular angered some fellow NATO allies, who said the trip handed legitimacy to Putin's claims to Ukrainian territory seized since Russia's 2022 invasion.
Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told a public forum he would not speculate on whether Orban's trip to Moscow was coordinated with Trump, Biden's rival in the November US election, but said the Ukrainians had grave misgivings about any effort to negotiate a peace deal without them.
"So whatever adventurism is being undertaken without Ukraine's consent or support is not something that's consistent with our policy, the foreign policy of the United States," he said.
ANGRY WORDS FROM CHINA
Wednesday's NATO declaration included sharp words about China, calling it "a decisive enabler" of Russia's war in Ukraine, and said Beijing continues to pose systemic challenges to Europe and to security.
China's Foreign Ministry said the declaration was biased and "sowing discord" and its mission to the European Union described it as being "full of Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric, and China-related content full of provocations, lies, incitement and smears."
"Calling China out in the NATO declaration as a "decisive enabler" is a reminder to the world that Russia could not sustain this horrific war effort without China's help,” said James Goldgeier, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
China has repeatedly lashed out at NATO criticisms and has warned against its expansion into the Indo-Pacific.
Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia have forged stronger ties with NATO amid rising concerns over China's pressure on rival claimants in disputed waters in the region and on democratic Taiwan, the global hub of cutting-edge chip production, which Beijing claims as its own.
PROJECTING UNITY
Fears that the US presidential election could yield a sharp change in Washington's support for Ukraine and NATO have loomed over the Washington meetings.
On Wednesday, Trump, who has questioned the value of NATO in the past and pressed congressional Republicans to stall military aid for Ukraine before later reversing course, claimed Ukraine would not have been attacked had he been president. He cited his "good relationship with President Putin."
Biden's uneven performance in a June 27 debate against Trump and low public approval ratings have raised fresh doubts about his mental fitness to stand again, with nine Democratic members of Congress and one Democratic senator calling for him to step aside.
Biden, 81, will hold a rare solo news conference on Thursday afternoon, where reporters are certain to question his candidacy, despite his hope to shift the narrative, surrounded by allied leaders he has cultivated.
Zelensky met both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington on Wednesday. He is keen to cement ties with US lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle in the event that Trump is reelected.
A NATO declaration said the allies would provide at least 40 billion euros ($43 billion) in military aid to Ukraine within the next year, although they stopped short of the multi-year commitment Stoltenberg had sought.
