The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has urged Ukraine’s Western allies to lift restrictions on the use of weapons, stating that Kyiv has the right to strike the countries from which it is being attacked.
Speaking in Brussels, ahead of an informal meeting of EU defense ministers, Borrell described it as “absurd” to suggest that attacks on Russian territory would imply a direct war with Moscow. “No one wants” a war with Russia, he said.
“But put yourself in the shoes of the Ukrainians: the Russians are bombing you from a place you cannot reach. You want to fight on equal terms,” he said, adding that to achieve this, Ukraine must be able to strike the locations from which Russia attacks.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have consistently urged global allies to allow Ukraine to target military objectives deeper within Russia using Western-supplied weapons.
A few weeks ago, Ukraine launched an incursion into Russian territory.
Zelensky has said that Russia “needs to feel what it has done.”
Recently, Russia has responded with intense rocket and drone attacks, targeting civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials state that despite new weapon shipments helping Ukraine, its armed forces remain at a disadvantage due to Western restrictions that prevent them from using long-range weapons to strike deep within Russian territory.
“Long-term security for Europe begins with short-term and bold decisions for Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters in Brussels on August 29.
