There are no legal, related with security or moral arguments against Ukraine's partners shooting down Russian missiles over its territory, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said today, quoted by Ukrinform, writes BTA.
Kuleba said at a joint press conference in Kyiv with his German counterpart Analena Berbok that the Ukrainian side is asking its partners to either consider this possibility or provide air defense and combat aviation systems with appropriate technical characteristics.
„There are no legal, security or moral arguments that would stand before our partners not to shoot down Russian missiles over the territory of Ukraine from their territory. Those who say that such actions will be an escalation are manipulating, Kuleba said.
According to him, the Ukrainian side has heard many times that escalation should be avoided, but in recent years only Russia has caused escalation.
„The first thing is that we ask our partners to consider the possibility of intercepting Russian missiles – not Russian planes with Russian pilots on board, but pieces of iron that bring death from Russia to Ukraine – from the territory of our partner countries. There is an alternative solution: if you don't want to do that, just give us the necessary conditions, and we will deploy them on the territory of Ukraine and intercept these missiles ourselves. It is about anti-aircraft systems and combat aviation with appropriate technical characteristics. To take a position in which there is no transfer of anti-aircraft systems and not to support the shooting down of Russian missiles from one's own territory over the territory of Ukraine is a position of appeasement of the aggressor, stressed the head of Ukrainian diplomacy.
Earlier, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, expressed his conviction that possible help from NATO to shoot down Russian missiles over the territory of Ukraine could compensate for the shortage of anti-aircraft systems experienced by Ukraine and would not mean the intervention of the alliance in the war.