Two NATO members, France and Poland, openly declared that Kyiv was free to use its missiles to strike targets within Russia, triggering threats from the Kremlin of a full-scale conflict with the West. This suggests that the war in Ukraine may be about to enter unknown territory.
Both Paris and Warsaw have come out in favor of the apparent escalation in the war after controversial remarks made over the weekend by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who stated that Ukraine should be free to deploy weaponry supplied by the West to attack locations inside Russia.
Poland’s Minister of Defense, Cezary Tomczyk, stated in an interview with Radio ZET that Kyiv “may fight as they want” and that Warsaw will not impose any limitations on Kyiv’s deployment of Polish-supplied weaponry against Russian targets.
Tomczyk declared, “We choose to support Ukraine in its fight; after brutal attacks, it has the right to defend itself as it sees fit.”
On the final day of his official visit to Germany on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron argued that Ukraine should have the right to use Western-supplied weapons against specific Russian targets, specifically locations from which Moscow attacks the country.
Macron stated, as reported by France24, that “we consider that we should enable them to neutralize military locations where missiles are fired, from where… Ukraine is attacked,” but he should not let them “affect other targets in Russia, especially obviously civilian capacities.”
Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, was a little more reserved. However, he declared that he did not disagree with Macron’s legal position, saying that Ukraine “has every possibility under international law for what it is doing.” That needs to be stated clearly. It is peculiar to me when people argue that it should not be able to protect itself and implement appropriate actions.
This week, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that there was “no change at this point; we do not encourage or enable the use of U.S. supplied weapons to strike inside Russia,” amid reports that senior White House officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were lobbying for President Biden to lift his prohibition on Ukraine using American-supplied missiles to strike targets within Russia.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg ignited the debate over the weekend, claiming that Washington and other parties had hindered Kyiv from using weapons supplied by the West to launch an internal attack on Russia. He said, “To deny Ukraine the ability to make use of these weapons against targets inside Russian territory makes it very difficult for them to defend themselves.”
Moscow responded angrily, claiming that the Norwegian politician had overreached his position as leader of the ostensibly defensive coalition by proposing strikes against Russia. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made this claim.
Additionally, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if Western missiles attack his country, the proxy war might expand to include all of Europe.
“Serious consequences may result from this ongoing escalation. Given our equality in the realm of strategic weapons, how will the US respond if these grave repercussions materialize in Europe? Hard to say. Do they want to wage a world war? According to state media outlet RT, Putin stated this on Tuesday.
