EU to discuss lifting restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons on targets inside Russian territory

By Nur Asena Erturk

The EU foreign policy chief on Thursday stressed the need to discuss lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons on military targets inside Russia.

Before attending the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Josep Borrell told reporters that Ukraine “has shown a lot of strategic audacity launching attacks inside the Russian territory.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who is also taking part in the meeting, will certainly explain to the EU ministers why they need to lift “restrictions on the use of weaponry against Russian military targets in accordance with international law,” he said.

Borrell recalled that he had been openly in favor of considering the topic, noting that the weaponry provided by Europeans to Ukraine “has to have full use,” and the restrictions must be lifted “in order for the Ukrainians to be able to target the places where Russia is bombing them, otherwise the weaponry is useless.”

Kuleba, for his part, backed Borrell’s remarks. “One of the outstanding issues on our agenda is the permission for Ukraine to strike legitimate, I emphasize legitimate, military targets in the depths of Russia,” including Russian “airfields” from where strategic and tactical bombers are launched to attack Ukrainian forces and civilian infrastructure, he said.

“If decisions are taken, Ukraine is successful on the ground. If they are not taken, then do not complain on Ukraine, complain on yourself,” Kuleba said, and regretted the gaps between the “announcement of military assistance and the actual delivery of the military assistance.”

“Sometimes these gaps are excessively long. You cannot do military planning. You cannot calculate what you can count on and what you cannot count on in the battlefield,” he said.