Following years of requests, pleas and false starts, Ukraine has, it appears, definitively been given permission to fire missiles deep into Russian territory. Since the start of Moscow’s invasion in 2022, Kyiv had been banned from attacking military targets on Russian soil with western-made weapons. Now, after three years of war, it appears Ukraine’s allies have indeed decided to allow it to retaliate as it sees fit.
The news of the change of tack by Ukraine’s allies came yesterday from Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor. Speaking at an event in Berlin, the Chancellor revealed that ‘there are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine. Neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us.’ Even the Americans were on board with allowing Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia, Merz said. Alluding to the fact that the ban on Kyiv using long-range missiles to target military bases on Russian soil amounted to Ukraine fighting with one hand tied behind its back, Merz added: ‘A country that can only counter an aggressor on its own territory is not adequately defending itself.’
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