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Sak stama says talks with President Biden in Washington have been wide ranging and productive but wouldn't say whether he' persuaded the US to allow Ukraine to fire long range missiles into Russia president zalinsky has repeatedly called for permission to use the weapons on targets across the border he claims it is the only way to end the war our political editor Chris Mason has sent this report from the White House I think the next few weeks and months could be crucial what does President Biden make of Russia's threats against the West I don't think much about V this is the Blue Room of the White House the president the Prime Minister and their team spoke here for about an hour and a half the war in Ukraine dominated the conversation afterwards s Arma wouldn't be drawn on whether he'd persuaded the president that authorizing Ukraine to fire Western missiles at Russia was a good idea instead he said well there's only one reason we're having these discussions and that is because Putin has illegally invaded Ukraine um and uh the quickest way to resolve this obviously uh lies through uh you know what Putin actually uh does because it's for him to end this um but we are having the discussion we've stood with Ukraine Ukraine has a right to self-defense um and we've stood United not just with our allies here in the US but um across with our Nat allies that's very very important to us these are the long range anglow French missiles Ukraine would love to fire into Russia the UK making the argument to allies it's a request that should be granted they rely on American Satellite Systems to work you might ask why the Prime Minister has been so Keen to dash here to visit a president who we know will be gone in just a few months time his answer is there are Urgent issues that need addressing now not least this question of missiles the president has been skeptical about Ukraine being able to fire them into Russia fearing it would be dangerous this is the reality of the war grinding on in Ukraine a country desperate for ongoing help its allies weighing up how best to do it and at what cost Chris Mason BBC News in Washington well let's get more on this from our North America correspondent Jenny kummer we haven't had a huge amount of detail in terms of what was actually discussed but there was a short statement that was issued and that uh said that the Allies reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine they also uh expressed deep concern about Iran and North Korea's provision of lethal weapons uh to Russia and China's support of uh Russia's um defense Industrial Bas now uh as we saw in Chris Chris's report um Sak starma uh gave a short interview after uh that meeting and he refused to be drawn on whether a decision had been made uh to lift those restrictions on enabling uh Western missiles to strike deep into Russia um and he insisted that uh the discussion was wide ranging was about strategy and not about a specific capability but for uh the Western allies it's a it's a delicate balance between uh deciding uh the impact of in action versus action and also what Russia's response would be to that Jenny Kumar in Washington a little earlier and we'll be getting the view from keev later in the program with our Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse but first vodar kakos is a former foreign minister for Lithuania he was also an EU ambassad to Russia and I asked him for his response to Putin's red lines on missiles well I think first of all it's important and that what I used to do back in 2013 2017 during the first war of crimeia and occupation and Eastern uh Ukraine is to remind uh again and again that it was Russia who started the war who invaded uh Ukraine and violated all the red lines which which are established by international law uh and and try to undermine that narrative what Vladimir Putin is trying to to promulgate uh and show to International audience and to the Russians as if where Russia is a victim what what role would an ambassador play when that we do get this war of words constantly developing uh between Russia and the block uh that you're trying to represent how would you step in there well there is a twofold first is is a Public Communication which is hard in Russia because it's so much controlled by by the state media but still I used to go to to interviews and uh talk shows even if they are you know orchestrated and try to do what I said right now it's Russia who Bears responsibility uh they violated international law uh they attacked uh innocent and peaceful population of Ukraine and they Bear all responsibility on the same at the same time I would communicate uh to the member states and to the Allies like United States and United Kingdom which is not anymore member of the European Union it is important to support wholeheartedly including with long range uh Weaponry Ukraine if we want to see if we want to see Russia fails uh I mean and before entering any negotiations the escalation is unavoidable uh so that Putin would uh would feel the harm and pain