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French Head of FM Committee calls for allowing Ukraine to hit Russian territory

The head of the French parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Jean-Louis Bourlange, has called on Paris to lift the taboo on Ukrainian strikes with French weapons on Russian territory.

byBenjamin Looijen

19/05/2024

2 minute read

A Ukrainian soldier loads a mortar shell under the supervision of a French army instructor (L) during a military training with French servicemen, in a military training compound at an undisclosed location in Poland

A Ukrainian soldier loads a mortar shell under the supervision of a French army instructor (L) during a military training. Credit: Eastnews.ua.

French Head of FM Committee calls for allowing Ukraine to hit Russian territory

Jean-Louis Bourlange, Head of the French Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has written a letter to the French leadership calling on them to abandon the restriction put on Ukraine with striking Russian territory with French weapons.

Bourlange wrote to the French leadership to refrain from further “restraint and make a decision” following the example of Britain, which has allowed Ukrainian troops to pound its weapons on Russia.

As reported by Le Figaro, Bourlange argues that a change of this nature would be legitimate considering the circumstances, because it would end the asymmetry between the aggressor and the victim.

“The time seems to have come… The right to self-defense excludes the right of asylum in the aggressor’s territory,” he stressed.

At the same time, Bourlange emphasized that neither France nor Ukraine’s other Western partners are willing to go to war with the Russian Federation.

“Therefore, it is not about them intervening in the theater of military operations, but about removing an unjustified taboo,” he wrote in his letter.

Using Western weapons on Russian territory

Ukraine, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, has been restricted from using weapons received from Western countries to strike Russian territory. Usually, the Western explanation for this restriction was that they were giving Ukraine weapons to defend itself against Russia, not to attack it.

This year, however, there has been some movement on this issue. For example, after a visit to Kyiv, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that Ukraine has the right to beat on Russian territory with British weapons.

At the same time, the US is still sticking to its policy of restricting Ukraine in strikes against the Russian Federation. However, during a visit to Kyiv in May, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Ukraine chooses how to wage war, but the US does not encourage strikes on Russian Federation.

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