Dutch foreign minister wants EU to let Ukraine fire supplied weapons on Russian targets

Ukraine should be allowed to utilize weaponry supplied by Western countries to strike Russian targets. Outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister Hanke Bruins Slot promised on Thursday that the Netherlands would state this position in communications with the European Union and NATO members.

Various EU countries and the United States are not yet allowing the weapons they supplied to be used to target Russia directly. This would possibly result in an escalation of war, they have argued. However, there is increasing discussion about this subject because the Ukrainian frontlines are under greater pressure, and are being pushed back.

The Cabinet has long said that the weapons the Netherlands provides are allowed to be used against locations in Russia. In Parliament, Bruins Slot emphasized that there are no limits connected to what the Ukrainians can do with the weapons. The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament, also agrees that the “taboo” on using weapons on targets in Russia should be canceled.

When British Foreign Affairs Minister David Cameron announced at the start of this month that the government in Kyiv “absolutely has the right to strike Russian targets with the weapons that they have received from the United Kingdom,” it led to angry replies from Russian leadership.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that Moscow would consider attacking British military targets in Ukraine, should British-supplied rockets be fired by Ukraine into Russia.

The New York Times has now reported that there are discussions within the United States government about withdrawing restrictions about the Ukrainian military's use of American weaponry. They are contemplating allowing the weapons to be fired on rocket installations and artillery positions just over the Russian border.