Ukraine allowed to strike inside Russia, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz say
- The leaders said the targets should be limited to military sites, not civilian areas
- Russia’s Vladimir Putin warns West that such action could trigger a global conflict
France and Germany’s leaders said on Tuesday that Ukraine should be allowed to hit military sites inside Russia from which missiles were being fired at Ukrainian territory, but not other targets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West earlier in the day that Nato members in Europe were playing with fire by proposing to let Ukraine use Western-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, which he said could trigger a global conflict.
“We support Ukraine and we don’t want escalation, that hasn’t changed,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Meseberg, Germany.
“We think we should allow them to neutralise military sites from which missiles are fired, military sites from which Ukraine is attacked, but we shouldn’t allow them to hit other targets in Russia and civilian or other military sites in Russia.”
Scholz said he agreed with Macron and that as long as Ukraine respected the conditions given by countries that supplied the weapons, including the United States, and international law, it was allowed to defend itself.