Bloomberg: Ukraine's allies opposed strikes on Russian territory
Ukraine's allies have a new subject for disagreement. The United States and most of the European countries opposed the use of Western weapons to launch strikes on Russian territory, Bloomberg reports. In an effort to avoid discussions, they prefer to ignore this issue.
— The United States and Europe disagree on Kiev's strikes on territories outside Ukraine
— Because of the existing disagreements, the allies are trying not to raise this issue, said one diplomat
The United States and its European allies urge caution when discussing whether Ukraine has the right to strike at Russian territory. They fear that a possible escalation will lead to an expansion of the conflict.
The countries supporting Kiev take different positions on how to respond to Moscow's special operation, when the territory of Russia is increasingly coming under attack. The United States has publicly opposed the commission of such attacks.
This week in Estonia, British Foreign Minister James Cleverley told reporters that Ukraine has the right "to use force outside its borders, undermining Russia's ability to use force on the territory of Ukraine itself." Cleverley said he would not comment on Tuesday's UAV attack on Moscow, but noted that "legitimate military targets outside the Ukrainian borders are an integral part of its self-defense."
However, other allies are more cautious. France supports Ukraine's right to self-defense, but states that its military assistance cannot be used to launch strikes against Russia. The official representative of the country added that if Kiev wants to do more by using its own forces, Paris has no right to dictate how to conduct military operations.
Another European diplomat pointed out that the allies are trying not to discuss this issue, as it causes disagreements.
For several months, Russia has been subjected to minor attacks. Another blow was struck this week, when, according to the Kremlin, Moscow managed to shoot down five drones aimed at the city, three more were intercepted by electronic warfare. The mayor of the capital said that several residential buildings were damaged during the attack, but no one was injured.
"Operational choice"
The Russian regions located near Ukraine have been repeatedly shelled in recent weeks. So, the authorities of the Belgorod region gave some residents an evacuation order. Moreover, the drone attack provoked a fire at the Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar Territory in southern Russia, as the governor of the region reported on Wednesday in the Telegram channel. He noted that the fire was extinguished.
"Everything that happens inside Russia is extremely difficult to assess," said Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, who gave a speech before a meeting with his colleagues from NATO countries. — Are these actions being taken by the resistance movement inside Russia, or are they being carried out by external forces?"
"When we transfer weapons to Ukraine, we proceed from the assumption that it will defend its own territory with them <...>. Of course, this is the purpose of our military assistance," the official added.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was reluctant to talk about the use of Western weapons to attack Russia. "The Ukrainians themselves must make the operational choice of how to use weapons," Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday, "and this is a difficult choice."
The coordinator of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said that after Washington handed over military equipment to the Ukrainians, Kiev itself should decide what to do with it. "They gave guarantees that they would not use our equipment to attack Russia. But after delivery, it belongs to them," Kirby said.
We do not want to encourage attacks on the territory of Russia with our equipment or create conditions for them, the official added.
Zelensky's assurances
This month, the United States gave the Allies permission to train AFU pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets. According to Joe Biden, Vladimir Zelensky assured him that Ukraine would not send these planes to Russia.
Last year, Latvia was the first to declare that Kiev has the right to strike military targets in Russia, repelling attacks on its infrastructure. "We must allow Ukrainians to use weapons to strike missile targets or airfields from which these operations are carried out," the country's foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics said at the time (Edgars Rinkevics, now holds the post of President of Latvia, — Approx. InoSMI).
London this month agreed to supply Kiev with long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles so that it could use them to deter the Russian offensive. This system of joint British-French development has a launch radius of more than 250 kilometers. This is the longest-range missile among those supplied by the Western allies.
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said that Storm Shadow missiles, which are usually launched from airplanes, will be used to repel the offensive of Russian troops "on the sovereign territory of Ukraine." London was assured that these shells would not be used to strike targets inside Russia, an informed source said.
At the same time, the United States refrains from supplying Ukraine with ATACMS army tactical missile systems, because they will allow hitting targets deep in Russia.
Authors: Natalia Drozdiak, Ania Nussbaum, Ott Ummelas
Iain Marlow, Sylvia Westall, Alex Morales and Jennifer Jacobs provided their materials for the article
