German Chancellor advocates allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons for strikes on Russian territory

The German government is cautiously withdrawing its reservations about allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike military targets in Russia.

A person familiar with the German government's position told this to Politico  that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports allowing the use of Western weapons against targets in Russia. However, the source did not provide any more details.

At the same time, German federal government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit told reporters that "Defensive actions of Ukraine are not limited to its own territory, but [may] be extended to the aggressor's territory," and stressed that he could not disclose the exact agreements with Kyiv on the use of German weapons because they are "confidential."

In addition, he noted that Scholz's statement a year ago, in which he said that there was a "consensus" that Ukraine would not use German weapons on Russian territory, was a "statement of fact" that was true at the time, but not necessarily true in the future.

On Tuesday, the German Chancellor stressed that Ukraine "has every opportunity under international law to do what it is doing", and Western countries that help Ukraine with weapons "have revealed all the rules for their use, which are based on international law."

However, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius pointed out that "in the interests of military tactics and strategy, it should be clear that we should not publicly discuss what is possible, what is allowed, what we would like to see and what we wouldn't."

Several European countries have no objection to Ukraine using their weapons against Russia, EU diplomat Josep Borrell said the day before.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in particular, said that Ukraine should be allowed to strike at Russia.