“Both the French and U.K. government have previously indicated a willingness to approve Ukrainian use against targets in Russia of the cruise missiles they have supplied,” said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at London’s Royal United Services Institute. “However, both rely on updated targeting data that probably comes from the U.S., meaning that they too have been blocked from Ukrainian use.”
Until now both the U.S. and the European missiles have been used against targets inside Russian-occupied Ukraine, including the Russian Black Sea fleet that was based in Crimea before being forced to flee to Russian ports further away from the fighting.
France has given several dozen SCALP missiles to Kyiv. Two French officials said Paris doesn’t need Washington’s approval to let Ukrainians use them, but so far there is no sign of Kyiv using SCALPs on targets inside Russia.
On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot echoed French President Emmanuel Macron’s position on “strategic ambiguity.”
“We openly said that [allowing Ukraine to hit inside Russia] was an option we would consider, if we were to authorize strikes on targets from which the Russians attack Ukrainian territory,” he told reporters in Brussels, speaking ahead of a European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting. “So, nothing new under the sun.”
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro overnight on Monday, Macron said he thought President Joe Biden made “a good decision” in allowing Ukraine use American-made to strike inside Russia.
Belgium
