Brussels – Not just defense. Ukraine can fire into Russia and hit Russian military targets, even using what NATO makes available to Kyiv. New scenarios open up for the Russian conflict in Ukraine, and it is the war to impose its logic. “This is a war, and, according to international law, Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and this also implies raids on military targets in Russia,” Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said as he arrived at the EU Council for the meeting of the defense ministers of the 27 Member States.
The time to think in terms of offense and counterattack has come. The Ukrainian president, in Brussels for visits and institutional meetings, cashes in on the support of Western partners to move forward through renewed support, bolstered by the go-ahead from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to remove constraints on the use of assets and equipment supplied. The declaration urging the 32 governments of the alliance countries to “support Ukraine in its international right to defend itself, removing some restrictions on the use of NATO allies’ supplied weapons to strike legitimate targets in Russia” is overwhelmingly adopted.
According to Dutch Defense Minister Kaija Ollongren, nothing extraordinary. “Ukraine is at war and has to defend itself,” she said. “Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil are something I have never ruled out. It is physiological” because it is the direct consequence of an armed conflict between two sides. On behalf of the European Union, the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, is entirely available to move forward along the new course, even considering the new front in the north, toward Karchiv. “New developments on the ground make our military assistance even more important,” stresses Borell, who announces for the June European Council the funding proposals for the European defense industry needed to translate into reality the strategy announced in February.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
