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Each NATO country will be able to make an individual decision on whether to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons for long-range strikes into Russia, outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with the U.K.’s LBC Radio published on Sept. 16.
“It’s for the individual allies to make these decisions, but it’s important that we consult closely on these issues as we do,” Stoltenberg said.
Ukraine is hoping for permission to use Western-supplied long-range missiles that it already possesses to strike military targets located deep inside Russian territory.
Anticipation had been high last week ahead of meetings between President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington, but no announcement on a decision was made.
As the discussions on the issue appeared to be closer to reaching a change in policy, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials have upped their rhetoric, claiming that such a move would mean that NATO is directly at war with Russia.
Stoltenberg acknowledged the threats but said, “There are no risk-free options in war.”
“But I continue to believe that the biggest risk for us will be if President Putin wins in Ukraine,” he added.
Saber-rattling aside, some NATO countries have already begun to alter their stance on long-range strikes in recent days.
The Guardian reported on Sept. 11, citing unnamed U.K. officials, that the British government had already made a positive decision regarding the usage of its Storm Shadow missiles ahead of a joint trip by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy to Kyiv.
Other countries, such as Sweden, Finland, and Canada, have also come out to say they fully support Ukraine using Western-supplied weapons to hit deep into Russia.
At the same time, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany will not allow Ukraine to use its weapons for such long-range strikes “even if other countries decide otherwise.”
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