Political strategist Steve Bannon has suggested that President Joe Biden's decision to permit Ukraine to use American-made missiles for strikes inside Russia was made to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from pursuing a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
On Sunday, the administration overturned prior constraints on Kyiv's use of Western weaponry, allowing Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, for long-range strikes on Russian territory, several news outlets reported. The United Kingdom has apparently followed suit, with Russia's Defense Ministry reporting that Ukraine used British-made Storm Shadow missiles on military targets inside Russia.
Bannon, who played a key role in Trump's 2016 campaign and is often recognized as a driving force behind his political ascendancy, has questioned whether the move by Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was designed to escalate the conflict ahead of Trump's return to the White House.
In an episode of his War Room podcast released on Wednesday, Bannon asked U.K. politician Nigel Farage, "Do you believe Biden and even the Labor government in the United Kingdom and the rest of NATO are trying to escalate this so that President Trump—the ability for him to step in and negotiate a peace deal, it's overcome by current events on the battlefield?"
When contacted for a response to Bannon's claim, the U.K. Cabinet Office said it would not comment on operational matters and directed Newsweek to Starmer's statements in the House of Commons on Thursday. The prime minister declined to confirm or deny that he had approved Ukraine's use of British-made missiles, but he reiterated support for Ukraine's "clear right of self-defense against Russia's illegal attacks."
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via an online contact portal.
On Tuesday, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and a former Russian president, made a similar claim to Bannon's, writing on Telegram: "The current U.S. administration is deliberately creating such an escalation of the conflict that the Trump team will have to deal with."
He added that the use of Western missiles on Russia would constitute a joint attack by Ukraine's allies, which would grant Russia the "right to retaliate with weapons of mass destruction against Kyiv and the main NATO facilities."
Farage said on Bannon's podcast: "For Keir Starmer and for Joe Biden to start a new offensive on a whole different level, I think it's an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do. And it shows you that the influence of the neocons is still very great on both sides of the pond."
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump pledged to find a resolution to the yearslong conflict "within 24 hours" of taking office.
Farage said the president-elect had "made it perfectly clear that his intention is to find a negotiable peace deal" between Russia and Ukraine, adding that Ukrainians may even be prepared to make concessions to this end.
"Everything [Biden and Starmer] are doing will make it harder for President Trump in 59 days' time," Farage said. "Not, of course, that he'll be deterred. But it makes it harder."
Russia has already responded to the use of Western weaponry for strikes on its territory, Kyiv said, with the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro on Thursday. The first use of an ICBM in the conflict would mark a significant escalation, and ABC News reported that two U.S. officials have refuted Ukraine's claim.
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