Afrasianet - Although some dissenting voices remain, a growing number of Western countries, especially the "big ones", are moving to "allow" the Ukrainian military to use the weapons it provides to them to strike positions on Russian territory.

Calls in the West to grant Ukraine the right to target the territory of "ancient" Russia, as well as Crimea and the four regions it joined in 2022, with Western weapons, have escalated in recent weeks against the backdrop of the Russian army's successes on the Kharkov axis.

After the Ukrainian leadership complained that the hands of its soldiers were "constrained" by the conditions imposed on the use of Western weapons, one Western country after another began to talk about the need to lift the restrictions, before the NATO secretary-general explicitly made the call last week.

Among the countries that topped the "Supporters' Camp" were the three Baltic states Estonia,  Latvia and Lithuania, whose leaders called for the lifting of restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons, and the two new NATO members  Finland  and Sweden, as well as Poland, Czechia, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Britain, and Canada, thus formulating their position:

Finnish President Alexander Stubb: Ukraine can carry out the bombing of Russian territory with weapons received from Western countries "as long as these strikes are carried out within the framework of international law."

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espin Barth Eide: We do not oppose Kiev's use of Western weapons "against military installations in Russia", and Ukraine has a right to do so according to international law.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: Ukrainian armed forces determine the targets they hit using the weapons provided by Britain

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Cesare Tomczyk: Warsaw does not restrict Ukraine from using Polish weapons to strike Russian territory

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie: Canada does not impose conditions on the end-user of weapons in Ukraine and must take an "advanced position" in this direction because Russia "does not abide by red lines."

Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala, expressing support for Stoltenberg'  s proposal: This is a completely logical position and as a country under attack, Ukraine certainly has every right to use all means of defense

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen: Allowing Ukraine to use F-16 fighter jets after delivering them to Kiev to strike targets in Russia "is not a new position," as the issue was discussed with the Danish parliament and "we made it clear from the beginning that possible attacks on military targets on the territory of the aggressor are part of self-defense."

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen: "Ukraine can use what we offer, also outside its borders, in the territory of Russia if it complies with international law."

Swedish Defense Minister Paul Johnson: Ukraine has the right to bomb Russian territory, as part of self-defense, while "complying with the laws of war."

Dutch Defence Minister Kaisa Olongren: Ukraine's attacks on targets in Russia should not be a topic of discussion in the EU, Kiev should have the right to do so in self-defense. We hope that countries with different positions will reconsider their positions.

French President Emmanuel Macron: We think we should allow them (Kiev forces)  to neutralize the military installations from which rockets are launched, especially the military installations from which attacks are launched on Ukraine. But they should not have the right to strike other targets in Russia, whether civilian or other military targets.

 Germany and the United States, two of the largest arms suppliers to Ukraine, "stood firm" until recent days, reiterating their refusal to use their weapons inside "old" Russia.

But US media began to report that President Joe Biden agreed and "secretly allowed" Kiev to use US weapons in strikes on Russian soil to defend Kharkov, before the Pentagon officially confirmed this.

 Germany also announced, through Chancellor Olaf Scholz's spokesman, that it had granted Ukraine permission to use weapons supplied by Berlin to strike targets inside Russia, saying that "Kiev has the right to defend itself under international law against attacks from areas inside Russia near the border with Ukraine."

Despite the fact that Washington and Berlin joined the "hawks" camp, even if their approval was geographically limited to the Russian areas adjacent to Kharkov, there are still voices strongly opposed to Kiev's unleashing of Western weapons against Russian territory in principle, in order to avoid a dangerous escalation of the conflict that threatens to slide into a full-scale war that could turn into a nuclear one.

In Italy, its Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed his country's total and categorical rejection of allowing Kiev to use Italian weapons to target Russian territory, because Italy "is not at war with Russia," stressing that "all weapons that go out of Italy to (Ukraine) should only be used inside Ukraine."

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto described NATO's plans to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to bomb deep into Russia as a "crazy idea" that could lead to an "irreparable catastrophe," because Russia would "respond with force many times more."

In addition to Italy and Hungary, a number of other NATO and EU members, including Spain and Belgium, oppose or at least do not support the use of Western weapons against Russia's territory, but those countries either do not supply lethal weapons to Ukraine or are not major suppliers.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the controversy in the West over "allowing" Ukraine to use its weapons against Russia as an "invented" and false discussion, if it is clear that the Ukrainians are unable to use French, American and British long-range missiles themselves, that NATO is behind their launches, which do not need any "permission" for Kiev.

Ironically, Stoltenberg himself revealed that much of the talk of "giving Kiev permission" is nothing but a "smokescreen," as Zakharova put it, when he said that Britain and a number of other NATO countries "have never restricted the use of their weapons against military targets on Russian territory, provided that this is done responsibly and in accordance with international standards."

Ukrainian forces have been using  Czech-made Vampire  rocket launchers for months to target Russia's Belgorod province, and their debris has fallen on residential areas causing civilian casualties.

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev urged Western countries that have "agreed to the use" of their long-range weapons deep into Russian territory (regardless of whether it is old or newly annexed territories) to "clearly understand" the dangerous consequences of their actions, warning that the current military conflict with the West "develops in the worst possible scenario."