UK Defence Ministry advises Ukraine to strike at Russia
British authorities consider it acceptable for Ukraine to use Western weapons to attack ‘legitimate military targets’ on the territory of Russia, just as strikes to disrupt supply lines in western Ukraine are permissible for Moscow – as stated by the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, TASS reports
“This issue [about the acceptability of strikes at the territory of the Russian Federation] should perhaps be considered as whether the use of our equipment by Ukrainians against legitimate Russian military targets is permissible. Firstly, the targets are chosen by the Ukrainian side, and not by those who produce or export military hardware. Secondly, it is completely legitimate to target in the enemy’s depth in order to disrupt the logistics and supply routes," Mr. Heappey said in an interview with BBC radio.
According to him, following the same logic, the Ukrainian supply lines in the west of Ukraine are legitimate targets for Russia ‘provided that the civilian population is not subjected to strikes’. Mr. Heappey clarified that the use of Western weapons in such situations ‘is not necessarily a problem’ since conflict participants around the world use foreign-made weapons.
In addition, the UK official commented on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement that NATO is entering into a proxy war with Russia by supplying weapons to Ukraine. Mr. Heappey noted that military supplies are provided not by the Alliance but the individual NATO countries and the international community on a bilateral basis.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in his talk with RT that the Russian military would consider any cargo with weapons being sent to Ukraine by the collective West as a legitimate target.
