BRUSSELS: Ukraine’s foreign minister urged EU states Thursday to pressure Britain and the United States to drop restrictions on using donated long-range weapons against “legitimate” targets deep inside Russia.
Dmytro Kuleba was in Brussels for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at a time of fast-shifting developments in the two-and-a-half-year old conflict.
Echoing a repeated appeal by President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kuleba told reporters he sought “permission for Ukraine to strike legitimate, I emphasise legitimate, military targets in the depths of Russia.”
“Since the very beginning of the invasion the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries act as a coalition,” he said.
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“I’m calling on the European Union to play a role and to make their point very clearly and strongly that this is something that needs to be done now if we want to maintain the momentum,” Kuleba urged.
“We expect the permission, and we expect the delivery of missiles which can be used for that purpose.”
Both Britain and the United States have put limits on Kyiv’s use of donated long-range missiles for fear of escalating the conflict with Russia.
Washington relaxed conditions on hitting inside Russia in May in response to Moscow’s offensive toward the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, but kept in place some limits on how far and under which circumstances Kyiv could strike.
Among key EU players, France’s President Emmanuel Macron has in principle backed letting Ukraine mount long-range strikes on military targets in Russia – but Paris has yet to supply weapons that would let it do so.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called for lifting all such restrictions, but some member states including Italy and Hungary are opposed.
Two and a half years into the war, Kyiv mounted a surprise offensive by sending troops into Russia’s western Kursk region on August 6.
But the conflict’s epicentre remains eastern Ukraine where Russia’s better-equipped army is advancing in Donetsk, while relentless strikes are battering Ukraine’s power grid ahead of a new winter of fighting.
Kuleba separately urged EU countries to speed up the supply of pledged weapons – including critically-needed Patriot air defence systems – warning that delivery gaps were “excessively long.”
Kyiv was promised four Patriot batteries from the United States and other allies during NATO’s summit in Washington last month.
According to Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis, Ukraine has received no ammunition deliveries since June.
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