French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that another massive Russian attack on Ukraine showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin "does not want peace and is not ready to negotiate", reports "Reuters".
France's priority was to "equip, support and help Ukraine to resist," Macron said as he left Argentina to attend the G20 summit in Brazil.
He declined to comment on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's conversation with Putin on Friday, adding that Ukraine's allies "must remain united on an agenda for real peace, meaning peace that does not mean the surrender of Ukraine.
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We recall that US President Joe Biden authorized the use of US-supplied weapon systems by Ukraine for attacks on Russian territory. American officials spoke about the decision on condition of anonymity.
ATACMS are likely to initially be used against Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia.
Biden's decision represents a significant change in the previous US policy towards Ukraine.
The White House declined to comment.
At the end of September, The Times wrote that Ukraine could receive permission to launch missiles on Russian territory, but without an official announcement in advance. Great Britain and the United States are preparing to give permission, but they want to announce it officially only after the first missiles are fired, The Times wrote, which tied the decision to the presentation of Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan.
The move comes just over two months before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. Previously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly demanded that the Ukrainian military be allowed to use American weapons to strike Russian military targets far from the border.
The news of the decision of the Biden administration, however, comes on the day that Russia once again launched a massive strike against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Ukraine plans to carry out its first long-range attacks in the coming days, Reuters cites internal sources.
Russia will trigger measures to respond to the potential use of long-range weapons by Ukraine on Russian territory as soon as the corresponding decision is made, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Earlier in September, President Putin said lifting restrictions on Russia's long-range weapons strikes would mean direct involvement of NATO countries in the conflict.