Portuguese Defense Minister says Ukraine should be able to strike Russia with Western weaponry

The Minister of National Defense considered today that “any normal person” would understand the use of weaponry by Ukraine, in “defensive actions”, against military targets on Russian territory, a personal position which he said does not compromise the Government.

“I will tell you what I think, that is to say, all defensive actions imply the use of weapons. Imagine that you have artillery pieces placed on Russian territory that are being used to lash out at Ukrainian lines. Are the Ukrainians inhibited from trying to destroy these artillery pieces? Any normal person understands that this would not make much sense,” said Nuno Melo, on the sidelines of the Schuman Defense and Security Forum, in Brussels (Belgium).

Faced with the journalists’ insistence on the question to clarify the Portuguese position on this matter, Nuno Melo emphasized that if there are “artillery pieces in Russian border territory, for example, that are being used to kill Ukrainians,” Ukraine should be able to use the weaponry it has at its disposal to “destroy these artillery pieces.”

“It seems clear to me that they might be, in a perspective that is mine, I don’t want to bind the Government with this,” he added.

The Minister of Defense was questioned about the limitations imposed by several countries on the use of Western weaponry by Ukraine, namely, the inability to use it to hit positions on Russian territory.

For example, the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv is just over 50 kilometers from the Belgorod district in Russia, from where Russian troops use missile and artillery systems.

But several countries consider that allowing Ukraine to attack positions on Russian territory with Western weaponry could be interpreted as a direct intervention of the West in the conflict and lead to an escalation.