Kateryna Girnyk17:18, 05/28/24

According to BILD, the Ukrainian army used the Patriot system at least once over the territory of the Russian Federation.

The USA and Germany threatened to stop supplying missiles to Ukraine if it uses them to strike Russia , writes Bild .

As the publication notes, the West’s demand that NATO weapons cannot be used on or over Russian territory works as a huge disadvantage against Ukraine – especially in the battle for Kharkiv.

“Simply put: while Russia fires nearly 5,000 artillery shells at Kharkiv every day, Ukraine is not allowed to fire a single Western shell in response,” writes Bild.

A similar situation with airstrikes. In theory, most of the Russian airbases in use should be within range of the weapons Kyiv has received from Western countries. But none of these weapons can be used to destroy Russian terrorist planes on the ground.

Ukraine also cannot use Western air defense systems against Russian aircraft and must wait until the bombers launch cruise missiles and are over the territory of Ukraine to hit them, the publication notes.

“According to BILD, the Ukrainian army has at least once used the Patriot system from Germany to carry out independent actions. The reaction: angry calls from Berlin and Washington and a threat to stop the supply of anti-aircraft missiles if such an incident happens again,” says Bild.

And although the Western blockade has finally seen a shift, the heads of several states have said that their weapons can now be used against Russian targets. However, many of the guns involved fire American projectiles, and the US, along with Germany, opposes such use, Bild emphasizes.

Ban on strikes with Western weapons in the Russian Federation

Earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz opposed the use of Western weapons on the territory of Russia . According to him, he sees no reason to expand the area of ​​deployment of Western weapons in Ukraine and rejects calls to use the supplied weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, members of the German Bundestag from the ruling coalition and the opposition are calling for the lifting of restrictions for Ukraine on strikes with Western weapons on objects in the Russian Federation.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the Allies to lift restrictions on hitting targets in Russia.

“When we supply weapons to Ukraine, they are actually no longer ours. They belong to Ukrainians, and they have the right to self-defense, including the destruction of legitimate military targets outside Ukraine – on the territory of Russia,” Stoltenberg said.

(C)UNIAN 2024