“There are no end-use conditions for sending weapons from Canada to Ukraine,” said Mélanie Joly, at a press conference with her Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billström, in Stockholm.
Canada’s Foreign Minister also stated that she intends to defend the unrestricted use of weapons received by Ukraine at the informal meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the Atlantic Alliance to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, on Thursday and Friday.
“We believe we have to be aggressive on this issue,” Joly said.
“Russia has no red lines and that is why we have to ensure that, when it comes to Ukraine’s defense, we are helping it and that we are on its side,” said the Canadian minister.
For its part, the United States does not advise Kiev to carry out attacks inside Russia with North American weapons, a position that the head of North American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, reinforced today.
“We have not encouraged or facilitated attacks outside of Ukraine. But (…) Ukraine has to make its own decisions about the best and most effective way to defend itself,” Blinken said at a press conference at the end of his visit to Moldova.
The US Secretary of State added: “We will do everything in our power to ensure that Ukraine has the necessary equipment to do so.”
Blinken said that although the Russian military took advantage of the US Congress’s delay in approving military aid to Kiev, it is now reaching the front lines.
The weapons are already having an “effect” in stabilizing the fighting front in the Kharkiv region (northeast), which has been the scene of a successful Russian offensive for several weeks.
Blinken stated that the Kremlin (Russian presidency) was unable to take Ukraine’s second city and cause a “mass exodus” of its population.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week threatened Europe with “serious consequences” if NATO countries allow Ukraine to use Western weapons against targets on Russian territory.
British Foreign Minister David Cameron stated earlier this month that, just as Russia attacks Ukraine on its own territory, it is understandable that Kiev feels the need to defend itself, particularly through targeted attacks against Russian territory.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also shown himself in favor of the use of Western weapons by Ukraine against Russian territory to neutralize points from which Russia launches its missiles, as long as the targets are not civilians.
In the same vein, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week that the time had come to lift this restriction and argued that attacking military targets on Russian soil, from which Ukraine is being bombed, is a form of legitimate self-defense.
Portugal, according to the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, is “more reluctant” and defends “some prudence” regarding this possibility to “avoid an escalation” of the conflict.
The Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo, considered today that “any normal person” would understand the use of weapons by Ukraine, in “defensive actions”, against military targets on Russian territory, a personal position that he said did not compromise the Government Portuguese.
On Monday, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, an independent institution of the Atlantic Alliance, approved a declaration of support for Ukraine’s ability to attack military targets in Russia also with weapons supplied by allied countries.
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