The leaders of France and Germany said on Tuesday (28) that Ukraine should be allowed to target military sites inside Russia from where missiles are fired at Ukrainian territory.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that a proposal to let Ukraine use weapons supplied by Western countries to attack inside Russia could trigger a global conflict.
“We support Ukraine and we do not want an escalation (of the conflict), that has not changed,” said French President Emmanuel Macron at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Meseberg, Germany.
“We should allow them to neutralize military sites from which missiles are fired, sites from which Ukraine is attacked, but we should not allow them to hit other targets in Russia, civilian or military sites,” said the French president.
The German Chancellor said he agreed with Macron and that, as long as Ukraine respected the conditions given by the countries that supplied the weapons, including the United States, and international law, it would be authorized to defend itself.
“Ukraine has all the possibilities, within international law, for what it is doing. This has to be said explicitly,” said Scholz.
“I find it strange when some people argue that the country should not be allowed to defend itself and take adequate measures to do so,” he added.
Throughout the two-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as the West considers what to do about Russian military advances in Ukraine, Putin has expressed the risk of global war.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Economist newspaper that alliance members should let Ukraine attack Russia with Western weapons, a view supported by some European members of the group, although not the United States.
In Germany there is also resistance to the idea, with fears of an escalation into a wider conflict that is likely to play a role in upcoming local and state elections in the country's former communist east.
Scholz refused to supply Kiev with Germany's long-range Taurus missiles, which could potentially reach Moscow.
Source: CNN Brasil
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