Kyiv should be allowed to ‘neutralise’ Russian military bases and facilities from which missiles are launched at Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a press conference following a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
‘We believe that we must allow them to neutralise the military sites from which the missiles are fired, from which Ukraine is under attack,’ Macron said.
He stressed that EU countries should not allow Ukrainians to strike other targets in Russia and, obviously, civilian objects.
EU countries continue to debate whether to allow Ukraine to use their weapons to strike Russian territory.
‘Should we allow weapons to be used to strike targets outside Ukrainian territory, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg suggested yesterday, or should we allow our weapons to be used to strike deep into Russian territory? Member states have begun to discuss this,’ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said in Brussels on Tuesday after a meeting of EU defence ministers, as quoted by the BBC.
Swedish Defence Minister Paul Jonson said that his country is not against strikes by Swedish weapons on Russian territory.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in response to a question from the Russian media about Russia's response to such actions and the consequences, said:
‘Our military knows this. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief and our military know this and are taking appropriate countermeasures and preparing for them.’
Background. Putin, in response to Stoltenberg's calls for permission to strike at Russian territory, threatened to strike at ‘small countries.’ The Russian dictator said that in long-range systems, the target selection would be made ‘without the participation of Ukrainian military personnel.’