NATO allies loosening restrictions on weapons for Ukraine? | DW News

NATO allies loosening restrictions on weapons for Ukraine? | DW News

Ukraine’s President Vladimir zalinski has canceled all of his planned foreign trips as Russia intensifies its attacks on the Eastern harkee region this new offensive began last week taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortages of weapons following delays in Western supplies but Ukraine says the Russian side is suffering record numbers of casualties and the Ukrainian Army has been aiming to disrupt Russia’s supply lines by striking inside Russia itself Ukrainian soldiers firing at Russian positions in the hake region where few expected there would be significant fighting again more than two years into Russia’s war in Ukraine the front line overall has not moved much in months but last week Russia opened a new front north of the city of hak with an estimated 30,000 soldiers retaking some Villages and bombarding the town of wans that has spurred an evacuation and a sense of Whiplash the region was amongst the first to fall when Russia invaded in 2022 but was retaken in a lightning Ukrainian counter offensive later that year Russia’s attacks here have already drawn Ukrainian forces away Elsewhere on the front line Ukraine is finding itself short of Manpower and of weapons after months of delay while the US Congress argued over more deliveries US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin made a rushed surprise visit to keev to address the worsening situation saying the new deliveries will change the dynamic we know this is a challenging time but we also know that um in the near term the assistance is now on the way uh some of it’s already arrived more of it will be arriving and that’s going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression uh on the battlefield Ukraine meanwhile says it needs more air defense the biggest deficit for us I think that the biggest problem yes and uh and uh we need really we need today two patriots for har one factor that could help Ukraine succeed is the increasing willingness of its supporters to allow attacks inside Russia to slow the flow of Russian military supplies and hinder advances Ukraine says the US formerly asked it not to conduct such strikes for fear of escalation but keev now believes that has changed and secretary blinkin said that while the US doesn’t encourage it Ukraine must decide for itself what to do with longrange weapons while the UK has already said that Ukraine has the right to strike military Targets in Russia other allies have been more muted and Germany still does not want its weapons used on Russian territory there have been several strikes using non-western weapons in recent weeks on belgorod a Russian City near the border to the hak region including this one where a missile was allegedly shot down and hit an apartment building belgorod is a major Logistics Hub and one Ukrainian media Outlet claims Russia is building a new military airport there drone and missile attacks there have killed dozens according to Russian authorities that gives Russia another reason to fight in Northern H to establish a buffer zone by pushing Ukraine’s artillery and miss Miss launchers farther away from its own borders to make those attacks more difficult for both sides timing is crucial if Russia gains even more ground before Ukraine gets reinforcements and weapons keev may find it much harder to keep fighting back all right I’m joined now from Washington by George Barrow from The Institute for the study of War George it’s good to have you with us clear this up for us if you if you would um has the needle moved at all on US policy concerning Ukraine striking Russian territory with us weapons thank you very much for having me Brent um as far as we can tell no the needle has not moved yesterday the uh Deputy spokesperson for the state department uh reiterated what has unfortunately become boilerplate rhetoric for the US state department um the US government does not support uh the ukrainians uh conducting attacks in Russian territory and they usually add on but it is ultimately the Ukrainian decision but the facts on the ground are that the ukrainians over the last 72 hours have conducted numerous long range artillery strikes against the Russian deep rear in Crimea but they’ve not yet struck uh military Assets in belgrad okay you said that’s what’s happening on the ground and you know the official policy has not changed the ukrainians seem to be saying that the White House has been saying something different behind closed do I mean have you heard anything to that extent so far not and unfortunately um the facts on the ground are that the Russians have been able to amass up to 30 to 50,000 Russian troops on the other side of the international border and my team at The Institute we we collect and study a lot of combat footage and when the Russians began this new operation uh just a couple days ago we saw the ukrainians uh striking the Russians when they were right either on the border or quite literally a few hundred meters across the border so we know that the ukrainians could see them but they’re not engaging them and making a conscious decision to not engage them until after they cross the border um I suspect we will know that the policy has indeed changed uh in fact or at least behind the scenes once we start seeing the ukrainians interdicting Russian aircraft behind the lines behind uh in Russian airspace or we start seeing some deep strike fires uh into uh dour Russian territory yeah what seems certain is that Anthony blinken’s words in keev this week they’re being interpreted as a policy shift by keev at least do you think that we will now see the Ukrainian military targeting Russian territory with American Weaponry I don’t think so not until we actually get uh the real policy change I think that we’ll probably in the near future see a demonstrative Ukrainian strike using the British Storm Shadow missiles now that the UK has officially announced that it is okay now what I expect the ukrainians are doing are they’re trying to find an appropriate Target that will create the informational effects to demonstrate definitively that yes the ukrainians can use UK provided weapons and NATO provided weapons on Russian territory and that it doesn’t result in any sort of catastrophic escalation to make it clear that those prohibitions uh can similarly be lifted uh by the United States I’d also add that this is not the first time that we’ve had this sort of pattern where uh the United Kingdom actually sort of breaks the taboo on what Washington is not willing to do and then Washington follows suit notably last year uh it’s the Brits that led with the main battle tanks long range strike and and not with this yeah it sounds like you’re describing a NATO that is um softening its stance and its restrictions placed on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons absolutely uh I think Europeans r large understand the stakes better they understand the military Stakes better and they understand that you know Putin’s red lines and his nuclear saber rattling those are are really Hollow threats because the ukrainians in a variety of different ways have already contested many of those red lines and proven that um the Russians are really trying to use threats to constrain our own decisions uh so that the Russians are forcing us to have the ukrainians fight the fight that the Russians would fight rather than uh the fight that the ukrainians need to fight to ensure their defense George bar from The Institute for the study of War George we appreciate your time and your analysis tonight thank you thanks for having me Bren

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has canceled all of his planned foreign trips as Russia intensifies its attacks on the eastern Kharkiv region. This new offensive began last week, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortages of weapons, following delays in Western supplies. But Ukraine says the Russian side is suffering record numbers of casualties and the Ukrainian army has been aiming to disrupt Russia’s supply lines by striking inside Russia itself.

00:00 Background
03:47 George Barros, Institute for the Study of War

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