French parliament asks authorities to allow Ukraine to hit Russian territory with French weapons

Jean-Louis Bourlanges, Chairman of the French National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee, has called on the French authorities to allow Ukraine to launch strikes with French-supplied weapons on Russian territory.

"It seems that the time has come... The right to self-defence excludes the right to sanctuary of the aggressor's territory," as Bourlanges' letter to the French leadership reads, as reported by Le Figaro.

He called for France to abandon its "reserve and make a decision" following the example of the UK, which has allowed Ukrainian troops to use their weapons against Russia. Bourlanges stressed that this would be perfectly legitimate, as it would put an end to the asymmetry between the aggressor and the victim.

At the same time, Bourlanges stressed that neither France nor Ukraine's other Western partners want to fight Russia, so "it is not a question of them intervening in the theatre of operations", but "of removing an unjustified taboo."

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has been constantly restricted in its right to use weapons received from Western countries to strike at Russian territory. This restriction has been explained in the West by the fact that they are giving Ukraine weapons to defend itself against Russia, not to attack it.

In 2024, there was some progress on this issue. For example, after his visit to Kyiv, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that Ukraine had the right to strike Russian territory with UK-supplied weapons.

At the same time, the United States is still adhering to its policy of limiting Ukraine's strikes on Russia. However, during a visit to Kyiv in May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine was choosing how to fight the war, even though the US did not encourage strikes against Russia.