Prime Minister of Denmark calls for lifting restrictions on the use of weapons by Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
Mette Frederiksen proposes to stop discussing “red lines” in relation to assistance to Ukraine. She believes that restrictions on the use of weapons should be lifted, including strikes on Russian territory.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Ukraine’s allies must stop dithering over helping the country fight back and allow the use of donated weapons on strikes inside Russia. She said this in an interview with Bloomberg, UNN reports.
Details
"My suggestion is, let us end the discussion about red lines," she said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Copenhagen. "It has been a mistake during this war to have a public discussion about red lines," as that is "simply giving the Russians too good a card in their hands."
"There have been constant discussions about, ‘Are we allowed to give this?’," Frederiksen said in the interview on Friday. "It would be really good to stop the delays there have been. And I think that the restrictions on the use of weapons should be lifted."
Frederiksen pushed back against any suggestion that allowing Ukraine to use weapons donated by western nations for long-range strikes in Russia would represent an escalation that would pull Kyiv’s allies into the fray.
The "most important red line has been crossed already. And that was when the Russians entered Ukraine," she said. "So I will not accept this premise, and I will never allow anyone from Russia to decide what is the right thing to do in NATO, in Europe or in Ukraine."
"Her nation of 6 million people has already told Zelenskiy that weapons Denmark donates come with no restrictions as long as Ukraine complies with international law — though their country of origin, often the US, will also have a say. Frederiksen declined to comment on what the US position was on, for instance, the use of the 19 F-16 fighter jets given by Denmark", agency writes.
Addendum
Key Western countries, including the United States, have so far denied Ukraine the right to use Western-made missiles against targets deep in Russian territory, fearing an escalation of the ongoing war, the newspaper points out.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is pushing allies to speed up arms deliveries and is expected to repeat these efforts when he meets with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week.
