UNITED NATIONS >> President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said Tuesday that he would urge the leaders of the United States, Britain and France to allow Ukrainian forces to use weapons supplied by those nations for strikes deep into Russian territory.

Zelenskyy said he had yet to get permission from any of those countries, despite other NATO leaders arguing that Ukraine should be given leeway for broad use of arms supplied by its partners.

Zelenskyy said he would make his case this week in meetings with President Joe Biden and in a separate meeting with Keir Starmer, prime minister of Britain, and Emmanuel Macron, president of France.

“Our decision depends on their will,” he said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday morning at the United Nations with Mette Frederiksen, prime minister of Denmark. “For today, they have to give or say that they will not give.”

“Do they really want us to prevail, or is it about something long, some terrible and long tragedy?” Zelenskyy said.

Recent diplomatic discussions among the three allied nations have focused on the question of allowing Ukraine to use imported weapons for long-range fire into Russia.

Drawing in NATO

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Biden has feared an escalation into a Russia-versus-NATO war, and has only gradually given Ukraine certain weapons systems and slowly loosened some restrictions on their use.

Zelenskyy also said the allies should help Ukraine fully equip all its brigades. The country’s reserve units are underequipped and not properly trained on weapons systems provided by the United States and other allies, but that shortcoming can be addressed by the nations giving Ukraine enough arms quickly, he said.

Denmark, Sweden and Finland — all NATO members — have said Ukraine can do as it wishes with military aid from those countries. In May, Biden agreed to let Ukraine use U.S. weapons for short cross-border strikes against Russia but still banned long-range attacks.

U.S. aid coming

The U.S. will send Ukraine an undisclosed number of medium-range cluster bombs and an array of rockets, artillery and armored vehicles in a military aid package totaling about $375 million, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The aid includes air-to-ground bombs, which have cluster munitions and can be fired by Ukraine’s fighter jets, as well as munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelin and other anti-armor systems, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, bridging systems and other vehicles and military equipment, according to officials.

This report contains information from the Associated Press.