Aug 14, 2024

Poland has become the latest NATO member to offer measured support for Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Kyiv “has every right to wage war in such a way as to paralyze Russia.”

Following the launch of its incursion on August 6, Ukraine continues to make gains in the southwestern Russian region where Kyiv says it controls around 386 square miles of Russia and 74 towns and villages. Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops now fully control the Russian border town of Sudzha.

NATO members had said its weapons cannot be used inside Russian territory over fears of escalation but Kyiv’s allies are not pressuring Ukraine to ease off, framing the operation as essential to fight against Vladimir Putin‘s aggression.

When asked about Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied weapons in the incursion on Russian territory, Tusk told a press conference on Monday that Kyiv’s “actions are defensive.”

He said that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine have “the hallmarks of genocide and inhuman crimes” and as such, Kyiv “has every right to wage war in such a way as to paralyze Russia in its aggressive intentions as effectively as possible.”

This echoes the sentiment from the foreign of ministry of Germany, which told Politico in a statement that Ukraine’s right to self-defense is “enshrined in international law” and that “this is not limited to its own territory.”

Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior lawmaker with the Christian Democrats, told Politico that Ukraine could hit “staging areas” inside Russia with German weapons because “after they are delivered, they are Ukrainian weapons.”

In a widely criticized move, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in May that Berlin would not give Ukraine the long-range missiles requested by Kyiv, such as the Taurus KEPD-350, because he wanted to avoid an escalation of the war.

On the third day of the incursion, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on August 8 that Washington “strongly [supports] Ukraine’s effort to defend against Russia’s aggression.”

In May, Washington allowed Ukraine to use U.S. weapons in areas near Kharkiv, not the Kursk region where Kyiv’s momentum appears to be building.

The U.K. government has not given Ukraine permission to use British Storm Shadow long-range missiles in the incursion, according to The Telegraph which reported that a British government source said “there has been no change” to London’s policy.

Kyiv has reportedly used the missiles against Russian positions in occupied Ukrainian territories, such as Crimea.

Kyiv’s incursion into Kursk has taken longer and reached further into Russia than either Russia or Ukraine had expected, with the governor of the neighboring Belgorod region announcing a state of emergency on Monday.

Retired U.S. Vice Admiral Robert Murrett told Newsweek that support from NATO members “has actually been understated but there.”

“The fact is that Russia has used the Kursk and Belgorod regions, as well as Belarus, to launch lethal air and ground attacks on Ukraine, and ‘active defense’ across the border is a legitimate strategy,” he said.

European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said that the EU is not commenting on operational developments but is “fully standing behind Ukraine’s legitimate exercise of its inherent right for self-defense.”

Newsweek has contacted NATO for comment.

Russia has reportedly had to transfer units in southern Ukraine to deal with the growing crisis in Kursk, a move which Murrett said would likely “diminish Russian capability inside Ukraine by resetting conditions across the border in Russia.”

Murrett, deputy director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, said there are signs that the Russian command and control of responding units “is still coming together, with all-important unity of command not yet achieved.”

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-kursk-ukraine-attack-putin-1939122