Ukraine can use French weapons to strike inside Russia - France and Germany says, defying longstanding US policy

Wednesday, May 29, 2024 - The leaders of France and Germany have said that Ukraine should be permitted to strike military sites within Russia from which missiles were being fired at Ukrainian territory, but not any other targets.

On Tuesday, May 28, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed their opinions at a joint news conference held for the first time following a Ukrainian attack on a Russian military installation in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West earlier on Tuesday , May 28 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.

Since the war in Ukraine started, the US has warned Ukraine to not use US made weapons to strike Russian territory.

A Ukrainian drone targeted a long-range radar deep within Russia on Sunday, marking a second such strike on Russian military infrastructure within a week.

“And I think I can say that, factually, we are not escalating by doing this, since it is Russia that is organizing itself in this way,” Macron said at Meseberg castle in Gransee, Germany.

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.

On the war in Gaza, with Spain, Ireland, and Norway officially recognizing the existence of a Palestinian state on Tuesday, the French President reiterated that he had “always defended two states as the political solution.”

Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz also unveiled the broad outlines of their economic strategy for Europe, calling in particular for the creation of a European savings product at a time when €300 billion ($325.6 billion) is invested in American companies every year.

Both endeavored to demonstrate unity and also made a clear claim to leadership in the EU.

“The German-French tandem is very important in this respect,” said Scholz. “We always come to an agreement,” he emphasized.