The current long-term impasse in the Russia-Ukraine war has raised a question on the NATO council itself: Should NATO allow Ukraine to use long range weapons, which NATO nations produce and supply to the embattled Baltic nation, to strike at targets inside Russia?
At the most recent round of NATO talks, but the US and France are making noises indicating that they wish to change the current longstanding policy which prohibits this kind of aggression against Russia.
According to a report by the publicly-funded French news network France 24, the NATO meetings at the end of May were ostensibly for the purpose of working out details for a “support package” in advance of a NATO summit which is currently scheduled for July in Washington D.C.
Ukraine has, According to the French outlet, been pressuring its allies for permission to attack targets beyond the Russian border. Up until now Russian national territory has served as an uncrossable line, which has allowed Russia to station some of its long-range forces within this zone of protection without fear of counter-attacks.
Germany and the United States have long maintained a firm stance of not allowing Ukraine to proceed against targets within Russia. Such permission would inevitably draw NATO powers more deeply into the war and into direct confrontation with the nuclear superpower.
On the other hand, according to a report published by the New York Times, Russia already considers NATO to be directly involved in the conflict.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told the New York Ties that NATO has been “flirting” with militaristic rhetoric and “falling into” militaristic ecstasy. When asked if NATO was approaching a direct confrontation with Moscow, Peskov said that they were already in such a confrontation.
This public stance by Russia may be eroding some of the Western powers’ willingness to honor the Russian border. Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, has publicly and repeatedly declared that he believes NATO needs to loosen the limits it places upon Ukraine.
