- The EU’s foreign and security policy representative, Josep Borrell, is fuelling the escalation of recent weeks. A number of Western authorities have recently made similar statements. Russia warned last week that it will militarily attack countries that allow Ukraine to use its weapons against Russian territory.
“The legitimate right to defence also includes attacking targets outside Ukraine, to legitimate military objectives within Russia,” Borrell said. He says that this right is “particularly relevant now” because the main conflict between the armies of Ukraine and Russia is the Kharkov region, near the border between the two countries. However, he notes that a “balance” should be sought between Ukraine’s right of defence and the “risk of escalation” of the war.
Fuelling the escalation of war
The major countries of the European Union have sent arms to Ukraine on condition that they do not directly attack Russian territory, knowing that this could deepen and widen the war. But in recent weeks some governments and authorities have questioned the need to maintain this condition. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General, invited Member States to “rethink” the matter, otherwise Ukraine will “be much more difficult to defend”. The United Kingdom has shown its support. In fact, Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelenski himself is suing his allies.
Russia, for its part, conducted military exercises with nuclear tactical weapons between Tuesday and Friday last week in cooperation with Belarus. Kremlin noted that the reason for the exercises was to warn NATO countries of the possibility of going beyond the protection they are providing to Ukraine. In particular, he pointed out that if Ukraine uses the weaponry of European countries to attack Russian territory, Putin’s government would go against those countries’ military objectives.
Negotiating conditions
In the context of the military exercises mentioned, Putin visited Belarus. Back, the Russian President spoke of possible negotiations, and made it clear that, if it were to be launched, they should be based on a reality that is today favourable to Russia: "It is said that we must return to the negotiations. Let them come back! But let them come back not from what you want, but from the situation in which you find yourself. We are willing." Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporiyia and the regions of Jerson have been annexed by Russia in the last war, Crimea in 2014, currently occupying one fifth of the territory of Ukraine.