US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that allowing the Ukrainian military to conduct limited strikes on Russian territory using American munitions would be “very, very helpful to the Ukrainians.”

“We've given Ukraine the ability to fire back, to shoot at Russian troops that are firing at them, and to destroy their artillery batteries that are firing at Ukrainians,” Austin said.

Asked about declining support in the US, Austin said he believes there is “strong support for Kyiv” among both political parties, despite the fact that it took Congress so long to pass the security aid package, and emphasized that Putin will likely not stop at Ukraine.

“And Ukraine is important... not only for Ukraine's purposes, not only for Europe's purposes, it's important for us and it's important for the whole globe. So, we have to make sure that Putin doesn't have the opportunity to trample on Ukraine, because as the president said, there's a good chance, almost certainly, that Putin will not stop there. He will continue to advance in other acts of aggression,” the Pentagon chief said.