NATO chief: Ukraine has right to hit ‘military targets’ inside Russia | Ukraine War

NATO chief: Ukraine has right to hit ‘military targets’ inside Russia | Ukraine War

uh we have now had movement on the rules that ukrainians have to play by as they use those weapons supplied by NATO member countries but they’re only allowed to use them to strike Targets in the har region you’ve been pushing uh for more than that do do you think that th that relaxation in rules goes far enough different allies have uh imposed different types of restrictions and some allies have imposed no restrictions uh at all on the use of weapons they have donated to uh to Ukraine I welcome that uh somal are now uh uh loosened or or reduced uh uh the restrictions they they have on weapons delivered to Ukraine because that will help the ukrainians to defend themselves uh and uh and we need to remember what this is this is this is a a war aggression conducted by Russia and of course Ukraine has the right to to defend themselves and that includes also hitting legitimate military targets inside Russia the key thing though is is America is allowing Ukraine finally now to strike targets but only in the harke region do you think you’d like to see more than that ukrainians certainly would like to see the ability to strike deeper into Russia do you understand their point of view Ukraine has already been able to strike deep into Russia uh they have their own weapons they have produced and as I said some allies have not imposed any restrictions on the use of the weapons they have the Americans we like to see them between allies but I but the point is that some of those allies that had restrictions have now um uh um yeah reduced the the magnitude of those restrictions enabling the ukrainians to do what is most urgent and that is to protect themselves against the attacks which are now launched from Russian territory because now the front line and the borderline is more or less the same uh in the north where Russia has opened a new front attacking harv and the decisions made by allies over the last few days have helped or will help the ukrainians to uh repel those attacks just to push you on that before we move forward though uh would you like to see the Americans relaxing the rules further particularly specifically on their weapons so the ukrainians could strike deeper with those weapons beyond the arive region so we had good discussions on this at the NATO foreign ministerial meeting last week in prag I welcome the decisions that have been made by some allies over the last days I will not go into uh specific or give uh recommendations to specific allies uh on TV we have good internal uh considerations uh deliberations on these issues in NATO just talking about what’s happening in the harke region now how worried are you by these advances that Russians have made in the last few weeks the difficult there is a difficult situation on the battlefield and we have seen the ukrainians sorry the Russians uh making some marginal gains but we don’t expect any major uh breakthrough Wars are of course always uh difficult to uh predict but so far we haven’t seen any concentration of forces on the Russian side that uh will enable them to have a major breakthrough but it h it demonstrates the uh the need for us to step up our Support over the last months there have been some serious delays in support from NATO allies the US spent six months agreeing a new package for Ukraine and some European allies have not been able to deliver what they have promised so that’s one of the reasons why uh we now are U addressing NATO how we can give NATO a bigger role in coordinating support for Ukraine and also agree a multi-year financial pledge so we have more predictability uh more sustainability and more accountability when it comes to supporting Ukraine uh to ensure that we don’t have the same delays and gaps in supply for Ukraine as we have seen over the last months yeah could you explain further about that because uh the latest research from Bane and and Company and other consultany seem to show that the ukrainians or the the West are getting and refurbishing shells about the third of the speed of the Russians that the Russians are developing making and refurbishing artillery shells at three times the speed that the West can supply them to the ukrainians why is NATO with all its military and economic might so slow it’s correct that Russia has been able to build up their defense industry faster than we expected and it’s correct that NATO allies have uh spent more time than they should in ramping up our production uh and that reflects that after the end of Cold War we actually built down our defense industry now now this is changing the United Kingdom all the NATO allies are uh increasing the capacity to produce ammunition uh uh weapons uh we have the United States which have over the last months doubled its capacity to produce 155 standard ammunition and within not so long time will’ll produce roughly 100,000 per month so this is really changing and therefore also the flow of ammunition into Ukraine has uh increased over the last weeks uh on top of that we also have the Czech Le initiative which was addressed also at the NATO meeting in Prague last week where Czech has coordinated um the procurement of ammunition from outside NATO allies and that is also now actually leading to concrete delivery so things are really moving in the right direction but you’re right it took too long time you’ve always Tau very diplomatically about this you’re but behind that diplomatic demeanor one suspects there’s a kind of frust frust ation about how behind the curve the West is over this and how much ahead of the game the Russians seem to be how frustrating has that been for you in your time in office I think we need to remind ourselves of how this war started uh Russia invaded uh Ukraine on the 24th of February and most experts and President Putin himself he thought that he was going to take control over Kia within days and the rest of Ukraine within weeks that didn’t happen the ukrainians have actually been able to liberate 50% of the territory that Russia occupied at the beginning of the war they have been able to uh syn a significant number of Russian uh naval ships in the Black Sea opening opening up a corridor in the Black Sea and theyve been able to uh uh conduct deep strikes against Russian military capabilities inflicting heavy losses on uh the Russian Armed Forces so Russia and and Putin made a big mistake by underestimating the ukrainians but also underestimating the the willingness the commitment of NATO allies to support Ukraine uh uh and therefore uh the main issue in this war is about whether Ukraine will prevail as a sovereign independent nation that can be member of NATO member of the European Union uh and the reality is that uh Ukraine will prevail because NATO allies are now stepping up our support and we are committing to a more long-term predictable support and therefore this is a big strategic mistake for Putin he has not achieved his main goal to control Ukraine a lot of concern about Donald Trump winning the upcoming American election if he does so uh and he pulls America out of NATO can the European end of NATO continue to support Ukraine or will Russia win this conflict I’m absolutely confident that both uh European allies and United States will continue to support Ukraine because it is in our uh security interest to support Ukraine and therefore I expect also the us to do so uh regardless of the outcome of uh the uh the elections um because we have to understand that if President Putin wins uh in Ukraine it’s a not only trategy for the ukrainians but it will send a message to President Putin uh that when he use military force when he violates international law he gets what he wants that will make the the world more dangerous and more vulnerable so therefore it is in our security interest uh to support Ukraine um and therefore we uh should do that also in the future Mr schenberg thank you very much for your time we appreciate it good luck with your remaining time in office thank you so much for having me

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has told Sky News Ukraine should be allowed to hit
“legitimate military targets” inside Russia.

But he would not comment on whether Kyiv should be allowed to strike targets outside of the Kharkiv area with US-supplied weapons.

Meanwhile, UK’s defence chief has told Sky News Russia does not want a direct conflict with NATO.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said he was confident Ukraine would prevail in the conflict with Russia.

Full story: https://news.sky.com/story/uk-defence-chief-doubts-russia-wants-war-with-nato-as-he-marks-d-day-anniversary-13147087

#ukrainerussiawar #russia #ukraine #nato

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