The Ukrainian incursion into Kursk is looking a lot like a NATO invasion. In addition to the reported presence of French, Georgian, and other mercenaries operating in Kursk with Ukraine, NATO countries are now openly approving the use of their weapons inside Russia as part of the Kursk assault. An AP wire today took note of this. “The combat inside Russia rekindled questions about whether Ukraine was using weaponry supplied by NATO members. Some Western countries have balked at allowing Ukraine to use their military aid to hit Russian soil, fearing it would fuel an escalation that might drag Russia and NATO into war.” Others, however, have not.
A spokesman for the German Defense Ministry stated that there was nothing stopping Kiev from using the weapons supplied by Germany on Russian soil: “International law stipulates that a defending state may also defend itself on the territory of the attacker…. There are no obstacles whatsoever, and Ukraine is free to choose its options.” The spokesman did not comment on the fact that the Ukrainian attack has predominantly hit civilian targets.
In this context, remarks by Germany’s Social Democratic Party Chairman Lars Klingbeil, in the “summer interview” program of national TV’s first channel on Aug. 11, that Ukraine ostensibly had the “right to defend itself” on Russian territory using Western-supplied weapons, are similarly scandalous: “That is what is happening right now, it is part of a war. You can find that brutal, we all want peace, but we are also consciously saying that Ukraine must be able to defend itself,” he declared, acknowledging that Kiev’s reasons for the incursion remain unclear, reported Tagesschau. “We will certainly hear more in the next few days whether it is about getting Russia to the negotiating table quickly, as some suspect, or whether it is about causing unrest on the Russian side.”
