Macron says Ukraine should be able to target Russia with western arms

Emmanuel Macron has called for Ukraine to be allowed to use western weapons against military sites in Russia, becoming the most senior Nato leader to ask for targeting restrictions set by Kyiv’s backers to be lifted.

The French president said at a joint press conference with German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday that Ukraine should be allowed to defend its territory from Russian attack, including its second city of Kharkiv, which is being bombed almost on a daily basis.

“How can we explain to Ukraine that they need to protect their cities . . . but that they don’t have the right to attack where the missiles are coming from? It’s as if we were telling them we’re giving you arms but you cannot use them to defend yourself,” said Macron.

However, he distinguished between striking military sites that Russia uses to attack Ukraine and other military facilities. “We must allow them to neutralise the military sites from which the missiles are being fired . . . But we cannot allow other targets in Russia to be hit, obviously civilian or military targets.”

Macron displayed a similar hawkish stance in February when he said sending western troops should not be ruled out, sparking an immediate rejection from Scholz and some Nato countries.

Ukraine has long pleaded with western capitals for permission to use donated weapons to hit Russian targets, saying otherwise it is fighting with one arm tied behind its back. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also stepped up the pressure on Tuesday, saying: “They are shooting at you, and you cannot shoot back at them because you do not have the permission [from western partners].”

Ukrainian officials say Russia’s cross-border offensive into Kharkiv province, in the north-east of the country, earlier this month showed the importance of lifting the restrictions. Moscow was able to amass men and equipment for its attack from the Russian side of the border, knowing that it could not be hit with longer-range, western-supplied munitions, such as Atacms ground-launched, precision-guided rockets.

Calls have been mounting from some western officials, including Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, for a change in policy.

Since the beginning of the war, the US in particular has been concerned that Ukrainian attacks using long-range missiles donated from their arsenals would be seen by Moscow as an unacceptable escalation. The White House has said it does not “encourage” or “enable” Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using US-supplied weapons.

However, inside the Biden administration, Antony Blinken, secretary of state, has recently been pushing for a shift in policy, according to one senior US official. 

Vladimir Putin has warned that giving Ukraine permission to strike targets inside Russia with advanced western weaponry could escalate the two-year war and lead to “serious consequences”.

The Russian president said on Tuesday that Nato members, particularly in Europe, supplying Ukraine with advanced weapons should “admit to themselves what they’re playing at”. He hinted that Moscow could strike back in response.

“They should remember that, as a rule, these [Nato members] are small, very densely populated countries,” Putin said after a state visit to Uzbekistan, according to Interfax. “This is the factor they should keep in mind before talking about striking Russian territory.”

France has supplied Ukraine with Scalp cruise missiles, equivalent to British Storm Shadow missiles, and precision-guided aerial bombs that could be used to hit Russian territory.

Germany has not supplied Ukraine with any of it long-range missiles, known as Taurus, despite Scholz coming under pressure to do so.

But Scholz signalled support for Ukraine on Tuesday alongside Macron, saying it had every right “under international law” to hit targets in Russia in order to defend itself.  

“[It] has to be said explicitly. [Ukraine] is under attack and can defend itself. I find it strange when some people argue that it is not allowed to defend itself and that it is not allowed to take measures that are needed for this.”

Up to now, Ukraine has only used its own home-made missiles and long-range drones to hit targets in Russia.

Macron argued that western allies would not be overstepping the line, though, because Moscow has adapted its tactics to fight in this manner. “Factually, we are not escalating by doing this, since it is Russia which is organising itself in this way,” he said.

Macron’s statement that Kyiv should not fire western-supplied weapons at Russian military sites not used to attack Ukraine may be a reference to recent Ukrainian drone strikes on two long-range radar facilities that form part of Moscow’s nuclear warning system.

Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington