Military expert on authorisation for strikes on Russia: it all depends on one person
29 May 2024 20:45
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
The Ukrainian Armed Forces were prohibited from using Western weapons to strike at Russian territory and could only hit such targets with Ukrainian weapons. Recently, there has been some progress in the Western blockade, and 11 partner countries have officially announced that they are not against the use of their weapons to attack the aggressor country. However, according to military expert Oleh Zhdanov, these are all political statements that remain statements. Zhdanov said this in an exclusive comment to Kommersant Ukrainian 
Poland’s Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said that his country supports Ukraine’s right to use Western weapons to strike targets in Russia.
At the same time, he acknowledged that few countries take this position.
“Of course, the situation looks like Russia is doing what it wants today, and Ukraine is somehow limited by some countries, and this must stop. Poland’s position is clear: Ukraine should be able to fight with the equipment it receives, and Poland has no objections to this,”
– tomczyk emphasised.
The official also added that Poland asks its allies to ensure that these restrictions do not exist.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said that Finland also allowed the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use Finnish weapons against Russia.
“Finland has not set any specific restrictions on its material assistance to Ukraine, but assumes that the materials will be used in accordance with international law,” Valtonen said,
– valtonen said.
She noted that Russia is waging an illegal war of aggression in Ukraine, and Ukraine has the right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
“This includes strikes on military targets on the aggressor’s territory, which are necessary for self-defence,”
– the Finnish Foreign Minister argued.
As of today, 11 partner countries have officially announced that they are not against the use of their weapons to attack the aggressor country. These are France, Lithuania, Latvia, Canada, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, Finland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
At the same time, according to military expert Oleh Zhdanov, these are all political statements that remain statements.
“10 countries have already made such statements. They are the same statements. And this concerns weapons produced in this country and supplied to us. For example, we have Polish crabs – Poland allowed us to use its crabs to hit the territory of Russia. Before that, Sweden allowed it. Scholz was cunning, saying that he was not against it in principle, but that we should listen to the wishes of the supplier. And we can only guess what those wishes would be. He said one thing in public, but he will say, “Guys, don’t do this,
– Zhdanov said in an exclusive commentary to Kommersant Ukrainskiy
He noted that these are all political statements that remain statements until one person in the world says “I allow it”.
“And believe me – as soon as Biden says it, whether I allow it or not, everyone will immediately accept it in silence. The first was Cameron. The UK was the first. This is the political position of all these countries. But we know that it all depends on one person, and I’m not talking about one country,”
– the military expert summed up.
It should be noted that US Defence Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said that the Biden administration has not changed its position on the use of US weapons by Ukrainian forces to strike targets in Russia. The administration believes that these weapons should be used to liberate the occupied Ukrainian territory.
Later, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stated that the United States does not support or encourage the use of Western weapons supplied to Ukraine outside of Ukrainian territory, but that Ukraine itself decides how to effectively use these weapons.
