Ukraine will be able to use artillery shells supplied to Kyiv under a new Czech initiative without restrictions, including against military targets in Russia.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said this on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague on Thursday, 30 May.
‘The Czech Republic has no problem with the fact that Ukraine is defending itself against an aggressor that is trying to destroy its statehood, including by means of attacks that must take place on Russian territory,’ dpa quoted Lipavsky as saying.
The Czech minister stressed that most of the planned supplies of ammunition to Kyiv will go through his country.
Earlier, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that in the coming days, Ukraine could expect to receive the first batch of 155 mm artillery shells out of 800,000 rounds of ammunition that Kyiv's Western allies intend to purchase from third countries at the initiative of the Czech Republic.
According to him, the volume of deliveries scheduled for early June will amount to several tens of thousands of rounds. The total amount of funds allocated for the Czech initiative, which is supported by 15 NATO and EU countries, will be €1.6 billion.
In addition, Fiala welcomed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's call to ease restrictions on Ukraine's use of weapons supplied by Western countries.
‘As a country that has been attacked, Ukraine has every right to use all means to defend itself,’ he said.
Earlier, in an interview with The Economist, Stoltenberg called on NATO countries to allow Kyiv to use Western weapons supplied to it to attack military targets in Russia. The reason for this, in particular, is the situation in the Kharkiv region, where fighting is taking place right on the border, the Secretary General said.
In his turn, French President Emmanuel Macron said on 28 May that Kyiv should be given the opportunity to neutralise military bases in Russia from where attacks on Ukraine are being launched with Western weapons.
Today, it became known that the United States is allowing Ukraine to use the air defence systems it has received, including the Patriot missile system, to destroy missiles and fighter jets over Russian territory if they threaten Ukraine, a source in the Biden administration said.