NATO chief downplays Kremlin escalation threat after US Ukraine shift
PRAGUE
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Friday played down the threat of escalation from Moscow, after the United States authorised Kiev to use American weapons to hit targets inside Russia.
U.S. officials said Thursday that President Joe Biden had secretly lifted restrictions on Ukraine using American-supplied weapons against targets on Russian territory, but only to defend the under-fire Kharkiv region.
Biden had come under increasing pressure from a desperate Ukraine to ease his ban, but had so far resisted amid fears it could drag NATO into direct conflict or even a nuclear standoff with Moscow.
Russia is preparing "provocations" at the Baltic region's borders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday during a visit to Stockholm, referring to recent hybrid warfare attacks denounced by several Baltic countries.
"It is also evident that Russia is preparing for provocations in the Baltic region against borders," Zelensky said, a week after Estonia said Russian border guards had removed buoys from the Narva River marking the border.
A Russian draft resolution published last week also indicated Moscow plans to unilaterally change its Baltic Sea maritime border with Finland and Lithuania from January 2025.
Germany also given Ukraine permission to fire German-delivered weapons at targets in Russia, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's spokesman said Friday, matching the move by U.S.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened "serious consequences" if Western countries allowed Ukraine to use their weapons to strike targets in Russia.
"I welcome that allies are providing support to Ukraine in many different ways, but I will not go into the details," Stoltenberg told journalists at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague.
"Ukraine has the right for self-defense, and that includes also the right to strike legitimate military targets inside Russia."
The head of the Western military alliance said letting Western weapons hit targets in Russia was "nothing new" as Britain had long sent cruise missiles to Kiev without restrictions.
"It has also been the case for a long time that every time NATO allies are providing support for Ukraine threatening us to not do that," he said.
"This is part of efforts by President Putin and Moscow to prevent NATO allies from supporting Ukraine to defend themselves, and, again, Ukraine has the right for self-defense and we have the right to help Ukraine."
Pressure had been building on key backer Biden to shift his position on Ukrainian strikes in Russia after French President Emmanuel Macron said Kiev should be able to hit back against attacks.
Ukraine's outgunned forces are struggling to hold back Moscow's offensive in the Kharkhiv region near the border that has seen the Kremlin launch attacks from its own territory.
Germany — which has refused to give Ukraine long-range Taurus missiles — has been ambiguous about its stance after long being reluctant to let Kiev strike across the border.
"We have made very clear from the beginning on that the right of self-defense is our line of support, and we are doing everything that NATO is not being torn into this war," German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said.
Other NATO countries that have been clamouring for Ukraine's key backer to remove its limits welcomed the decision by Biden.
"It makes sense to stop those attacks before they happen on the territory of Ukraine," Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said.
Lithuania's top diplomat Gabrielius Landsbergis said that the Ukrainians "are absolutely capable of defining the targets".
"I have full confidence that they know, they see and they understand what is needed," he said.