France and Germany said Tuesday that Ukraine should be allowed to use their weapons against targets inside Russia from which Moscow attacks Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Speaking at a news conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron outlined that French weapons sent to Ukraine, including long-range missiles, were permitted to target bases inside Russia. <\/p>\n
\u201cUkrainian soil is being attacked from bases in Russia,\u201d Macron said during his visit to Schloss Meseberg in Brandenburg, Germany. \u201cSo how do we explain to the Ukrainians that we\u2019re going to have to protect these towns and basically everything we\u2019re seeing around Kharkiv at the moment, if we tell them you are not allowed to hit the point from which the missiles are fired?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think that we should allow them to neutralize the military sites from which the missiles are fired and, basically, the military sites from which Ukraine is attacked,\u201d Macron continued. <\/p>\n
Macron added, however, that \u201cwe must not allow them to hit other targets in Russia,\u201d including civilian or other military targets. <\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s Scholz echoed Macron\u2019s comments and said that Ukraine was allowed to defend itself as long as it respected the conditions given by the countries that supplied the weapons – including the United States – and international law. <\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine has every possibility under international law for what it is doing. That has to be said explicitly,\u201d Scholz said. \u201cI find it strange when some people argue that it should not be allowed to defend itself and take measures that are suitable for this.\u201d <\/p>\n
Western allies of Ukraine have long held the policy that donated weapons should be strictly limited to usage inside Ukrainian territory. The issue is a controversial one, with fears from Western leaders that if their weaponry is used to strike inside Russia, it would escalate the violence and trigger a wider war involving NATO. <\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked permission from his allies to expand the usage of the provided weapons to strike inside Russia. <\/p>\n
The United States, the largest arms supplier to Ukraine, has previously forbidden Kyiv from firing its weapons inside Russian territory over escalation concerns. <\/p>\n
However, in comments that appeared to hint at the possibility of a change in policy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the US would continue to \u201cadapt and adjust\u201d its support for Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnother hallmark of our support for Ukraine over the last two years has been to adapt as the conditions have changed. Battlefields change. As what Russia does has changed in terms of how it is pursuing its aggression escalation, we\u2019ve adapted and adjusted too. And I am confident we will continue to do that,\u201d he said when asked about the possibility of allowing Ukraine to strike Russian soil. <\/p>\n
But Blinken also reiterated that at present the US has not enabled Ukraine to strike beyond its borders into Russia with US weaponry. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine. Ukraine, as I\u2019ve said before, has to make its own decisions about the best way to effectively defend itself. We\u2019re going to make sure that it has the equipment that it needs to do that,\u201d Blinken said. <\/p>\n
When pressed on his remarks about adjusting and adapting, he added, \u201cWe\u2019re always listening. We\u2019re always learning, and we\u2019re always making determinations about what\u2019s necessary to make sure that Ukraine can effectively continue to defend itself.\u201d <\/p>\n
Previous red lines drawn by Western leaders in their support for Ukraine have been crossed, including the provision of tanks, which was agreed in early 2023 to help Ukraine breach enemy defensive lines, and F-16 fighter jets, which European governments agreed to in the summer of 2023 after months of diplomatic pressure. <\/p>\n
France has supplied Ukraine with an unknown number of SCALP cruise missiles, according to the French Defense Ministry\u2019s website. <\/p>\n
The SCALP missiles have a range of up to 155 kilometers (96 miles) and carry a 400-kilogram (881-pound) high-explosive penetration warhead, according to the Missile Threat project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. <\/p>\n
The SCALP is the equivalent of Britain\u2019s Storm Shadow, which has also been given to Ukraine, and which British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said earlier this month could be used at Kyiv\u2019s discretion. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of what the Ukrainians do, in our view it is their decision about how to use these weapons, they are defending their country, they were illegally invaded by Putin and they must take those steps,\u201d Cameron said during a visit to Kyiv. \u201cWe don\u2019t discuss any caveats that we put on those things. But let\u2019s be absolutely clear: Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine, and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia.\u201d <\/p>\n
France has also supplied Ukraine with a range of military weaponry, including Caesar self-propelled howitzers with a range of up to 42 kilometers. <\/p>\n
Macron stressed that the French arms are to be used only against targets from which attacks are launched into Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe must not allow them to hit other targets in Russia,\u201d including civilian or other military targets, the French leader said. <\/p>\n
But Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Ukraine could not use the long-range weapons without significant NATO support, and such involvement by the alliance could trigger \u201ca global conflict.\u201d <\/p>\n
For instance, \u201clong-range precision weapons cannot be used without space-based reconnaissance,\u201d Putin said Tuesday during a state visit to Uzbekistan. <\/p>\n
\u201cFinal target selection\u201d or \u201claunch mission\u201d for Western systems need to be made by \u201chighly skilled specialists who rely on this reconnaissance data,\u201d Putin said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, these officials from NATO countries, especially the ones based in Europe, particularly in small European countries, should be fully aware of what is at stake,\u201d he emphasized. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey should keep in mind that theirs are small and densely populated countries, which is a factor to reckon with before they start talking about striking deep into the Russian territory.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ukraine got a key pledge of support on Tuesday from Belgium, which said it will supply Kyiv with 30 F-16 fighter jets in the next four years, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. <\/p>\n
The deal was part of a bilateral security agreement signed between the two countries Tuesday in Brussels, according to the Ukrainian leader. <\/p>\n
The agreement includes at least $1.06 billion in Belgian military aid to Ukraine this year, with Belgium offering its long-term commitment to support Ukraine over the next 10 years, Zelensky detailed in a post on X. The first F-16 jets from Belgium will be delivered this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe agreement guarantees Belgium\u2019s timely security assistance, modern armored vehicles, equipment to meet Ukraine\u2019s air force and air defense needs, naval security, mine clearance, participation in the artillery ammunition coalition, and military training,\u201d Zelensky said. <\/p>\n
The meeting follows a similar agreement between Ukraine and Spain on Monday, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez announcing a $1.08 billion weapons deal for Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Alongside Belgium and Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Finland and Canada have also signed security agreements. <\/p>\n
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.<\/em> <\/p>\n CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that Macron made his comments on Tuesday.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" France and Germany said Tuesday that Ukraine should be allowed to use their weapons against targets inside Russia from which Moscow attacks Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron outlined that French weapons sent to Ukraine, including long-range missiles, were permitted to target bases inside Russia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}