The Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksandr Litvinenko said in an interview with the Financial Times that the United States should lift the ban on using weapons supplied to Ukraine to strike targets in Russia.
As the publication states, Litvinenko called such a ban "completely unfair" and said that strikes on Russian territory would help Ukraine resist the new offensive of the Russian army.
Citing Ukrainian officials, the FT reports that the recent incursion of Russian forces into the Kharkiv region could have been prevented if the Ukrainian armed forces had been able to launch a pre-emptive strike against troops massing near the border with Ukraine .
According to Litvinenko's estimates, by May, Russia had gathered about 50,000 soldiers near the borders of the Kharkiv region, and more than 30,000 of them participated in the operation.
As the Secretary of the CSTO said, the main task of the Russian operation is to create the so-called "buffer zone" to protect the Belgorod region from Ukrainian attacks. Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained the actions of Russian troops in the Kharkiv region in exactly the same way.
Another goal of the Russian army operation is to divert Ukrainian forces from other strategic directions, including in the Donetsk region, where particularly fierce fighting is taking place near the city of Chasov Yar, said the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
"Our forces did a great job and managed to stop them," Litvinenko said of the situation in the Kharkiv region and the Chasov Yar region. "I can't say what will happen in the coming months." But now we have stabilized the situation."
US officials have repeatedly stated that Ukraine cannot use weapons supplied by Washington to strike targets located on internationally recognized Russian territory.
According to US officials, such a development could lead to an escalation of the conflict, as it would make the US a direct participant. In Kiev, they do not agree with such assessments.
On Monday, a group of congressmen representing both the Republican and Democratic parties wrote a letter to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, urging Kiev to be authorized to strike Russian territory with US weapons.
Among others, the letter was signed by the former head of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Mike Turner, and the head of the House Intelligence Committee, Jim Himes.