NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Western powers should reconsider restrictions on Ukraine using weaponry they supply to strike inside Russia as it is hampering Kyiv’s ability to defend itself.
“The time has come to consider whether it will be right to lift some of the restrictions which have been imposed because we see now that especially in the Kharkiv region the front line and the border line is more or less the same,” Stoltenberg told NATO lawmakers meeting in Bulgaria.
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Kiev should be allowed to attack Russian territory with Western weapons because ‘this is self-defense’ in response to Russian advances near Kharkov, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the alliance’s Parliamentary Assembly.
ReplyDelete"It’s up for allies to decide on what conditions they deliver weapons to Ukraine. It’s not a NATO decision, it’s a decision made by individual allies. But I have said that the time has come to consider whether it will be right to lift some of the restrictions which have been imposed. Because we see now that especially in the Kharkov Region, the front line and the border line are more or less the same. And of course, if Kiev cannot attack military targets on Russian territory, then it ties one hand of Ukrainians behind their back and makes it very hard for them to conduct defense. Because they are attacked from Russian territory with missiles, with airstrikes, with artillery, and it’s hard for them to respond because of the restrictions on some of the weapons they could use. And we have to remember what it is: this is self-defense. <…> Some allies have lifted restrictions, enabling the Ukrainians to better defend themselves, and I think the time has come to also consider lifting other restrictions to help self-defense within the limitations of international law," the NATO chief said. He added that 99% of weapons are supplied to Kiev by NATO countries.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov sees controversy between NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s calls to allow Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia and rhetoric about preventing the bloc's direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
ReplyDelete"These statements clash," Peskov told REN TV in an interview. When asked to comment on whether the alliance is getting nearer to a direct military conflict with Russia, the Russian presidential spokesman said that NATO was involved in one already.
In an interview with The Economist earlier, the NATO chief proposed that allies reconsider the issue of whether Ukraine should be allowed to attack military targets on Russian soil using Western weapons.
At the same time, Stoltenberg said as he addressed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly that allied forces should not attack Russian capabilities in the air or on the ground in Ukraine, or "we will be in a situation where it is very hard to keep NATO out of the conflict."