The Kremlin on Thursday accused NATO of “provoking” Kiev into prolonging the conflict in Ukraine, whose officials have been asking their allies for permission to attack Russia with Western-supplied weapons.
NATO foreign ministers are meeting in Prague amid growing calls for Ukraine’s key allies and arms suppliers to lift restrictions that currently prevent kyiv from using Western weapons to attack inside Russian borders.
“NATO member states, the United States and the capitals of Europe have in recent days and weeks been entering a new round of escalations of tensions and are doing so deliberately,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“They are provoking Ukraine in every possible way to continue this senseless war,” Peskov told reporters during a daily news conference.
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Vladimir Putin stating that his nation was “fiercely fighting for its future, repelling the aggression of neo-Nazis and their masters,” referring to Ukraine and the West.
Since then, their brutal invasion – the bloodiest conflict on European soil in decades – has largely become a war of attrition.
A view of the fire after a Ukrainian soldier fired Msta-B artillery at his fighting position in the direction of Liman.
Vladimir Putin (pictured) claimed his nation was “fiercely fighting for its future, repelling the aggression of neo-Nazis and their masters”, referring to Ukraine and the West.
As it continues to repel a Russian advance in the east, Ukraine has been pressuring its supporters – mainly the United States – to allow it to use the longer-range weaponry they supply to attack targets inside Russia.
The United States and Germany have so far refused to allow kyiv to attack across the border, fearing that could escalate the war and drag NATO nations closer to direct conflict with Moscow.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was forced to combat Russian attempts to sow discord in democracies with misinformation after hinting that the Biden administration could soon allow Ukraine to use US-supplied munitions to attack within Russia.
In Prague for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Blinken criticized Moscow’s use of misinformation and disinformation, calling it “poison” and signing an agreement with the Czech government to combat it. He also toured a Czech military base, where he saw armored vehicles that Prague is sending to kyiv to help fight the Russian invasion and received information about a Czech initiative to supply Ukraine with one million munitions by the end of the year.
“We know that an important front in the competition that we have, the adversarial relationship that we have, especially with Russia, is on the information front,” Blinken said.
He said the agreement with the Czechs, the 17th such agreement the United States has signed with partner countries, would help “effectively deal with disinformation, which is a poison our adversaries inject into our democracies.”
Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar in the direction of Avdivka
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire that broke out in a building destroyed after a Russian bombing overnight, in the center of Pokrovsk, Ukraine, Nov. 30, 2023.
“The more we are able to do together, both among our countries and with other countries, the more effectively we will be in exposing it and confronting it,” Blinken told reporters at a signing ceremony with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipávski.
Lipavsky agreed, noting that Czech authorities had recently exposed a major Russian-backed disinformation campaign.
“We are facing a confrontation between democracies and autocracies,” Lipavsky said. “The Kremlin has begun attacking democracies around the world with cyber warfare, propaganda and influence operations and this danger simply cannot be underestimated anymore.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and support for Ukrainian attempts to repel it will be a major topic at NATO foreign ministers’ meetings on Thursday and Friday, the alliance’s last major diplomatic meeting before a leaders’ summit in Washington. in July to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its establishment.
Ukrainian soldiers of the 80th brigade firing artillery at Russian positions in the direction of Bakhmut
Ukrainian soldiers fire a grenade launcher as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues in the direction of Avdivka.
In Moldova on Wednesday, Blinken said U.S. policy on how Ukraine deploys American weapons is constantly evolving, suggesting Washington could rescind an unwritten ban on Ukraine using them for attacks on Russian territory.
Although U.S. officials insist there is no formal ban, they have long made clear that they believe the use of U.S. weapons to attack targets inside Russia could provoke a stepped-up response from Moscow, something Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Has promised.
That position appears to be being reconsidered, and Blinken noted that it was a “characteristic” of the Biden administration’s stance on Ukraine to “adapt and adjust” as necessary. Blinken visited kyiv earlier this month and heard a direct call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to use US military assistance to strike positions in Russia from where attacks on Ukraine are launched.
“As conditions have changed, as the battlefield has changed, as what Russia does has changed in terms of how it carries out its aggression and escalation, we have adapted and adjusted as well, and I am sure that we will continue to do so. Blinken said at a press conference in Chisinau.
“Every step of the way, we have adapted and adjusted as necessary, and that is exactly what we will do moving forward,” he said. “We are always listening, we are always learning and we are always making decisions about what is necessary to ensure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself effectively, and we will continue to do so.”
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Western countries should not object if Ukraine needs to attack inside Russia to defend itself.
