French President Emmanuel Macron said Kiev should be allowed to “neutralize“ the military bases from which Russia launches its missiles towards Ukrainian territory, in the midst of the debate about the use of Western weapons in Russia, reported France Presse, quoted by BTA.
"We must allow them to neutralize the military sites from which the missiles are launched, the military sites from which Ukraine is attacked," the French head of state said at a press conference together with Chancellor Olaf Scholz at Meseberg Castle, near Berlin. "If we tell them that you don't have the right to reach the point from which the missiles are fired, we are actually telling them that we are supplying you with weapons, but you cannot defend yourself," Macron said on the last day of his state visit to Germany.
"But we must not allow them to hit other targets in Russia, nor civilian objects,", he added.
The debate over whether Western weapons supplied to Ukraine should be used on Russian soil or not is roiling Washington and European capitals. The most restrained so far, Rome and Berlin, fear an escalation and expansion of the conflict, as well as the risk of Russian President Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons.
„We do not want escalation,”, Mr Macron said. “What has changed is that Russia has somewhat adapted its practices” and attacks Ukraine from bases in Russia.
Chancellor Scholz was more evasive. "Ukraine has every opportunity to do so, according to international law," he said. "It must be clearly said that Ukraine is under attack and can defend itself".
NATO urges Western capitals to lift restrictions that "tie the hands of Ukrainians," in the words of its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, AFP recalls.
Today, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, urged the 27 EU countries to find a balance between the fear of escalation and the need for Ukrainians to defend themselves, saying that Kiev should be able to strike Russian soil with Western weapons, recalls AFP.