The United States lifted a major strategic barrier on Sunday by authorizing kyiv to strike Russian territory with long-range missiles. This Monday, it is France which reaffirms its position: the use of its missiles on Russian soil remains an “option”, indicated the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot.
“You heard President (Emmanuel) Macron in Meseberg (Germany) on May 25, where we openly said that it was an option that we were taking into consideration, if it was necessary to authorize strikes on targets from which the Russians are attacking Ukrainian territory,” he said, in English, upon his arrival in Brussels for a meeting of foreign ministers. “So, nothing new under the sun,” he added.
France has supplied medium-range Scalp-type surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine, but has always refused to indicate how many had been delivered and whether they had been used by Ukrainian forces. Asked in Brussels last month about possible Scalp missile strikes on Russian soil, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu refused to comment.
This Monday, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on London and Paris to authorize kyiv to use the long-range missiles they gave it to target Russian territory, as the United States did on Sunday . For him, it was even necessary to “do it 18 months ago”.
These missiles with a maximum range of several hundred kilometers would allow Ukraine to reach logistical sites of the Russian army and airfields from which its bombers take off. According to U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity to the New York Times, the U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles are initially expected to be used in the Russian border region of Kursk, where North Korean troops have been deployed. Koreans in support of Russian troops.
For its part, the Kremlin reacted, via its spokesperson, by judging that Joe Biden was throwing “fuel on the fire” and causing “a further rise in tensions”. If this announcement is confirmed, it would be a “fundamentally new situation in terms of the involvement of the United States in this conflict,” said Dmitri Peskov.
