STOCKHOLM
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday hailed a US decision to partially lift restrictions on using US-donated weapons to strike inside Russia as a \u201cstep forward.\u201d
\nWashington gave the green light on Thursday for Ukraine to use US weapons to defend its Kharkiv region on the border with Russia, overcoming previous concerns that authorizing such strikes could drag NATO into a direct conflict with Russia.
\n\u201cThis is a step forward toward (the) goal\u2026 of making it possible to defend our people who live in the villages on the border,\u201d Zelensky said during a visit to Stockholm.
\nGermany on Friday said it too had given Ukraine permission to fire German-delivered weapons at targets in Russia.
\nKyiv has the \u201cright under international law to defend itself\u201d against attacks coming from inside Russia, close to the border with Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said.
\n\u201cTo this end, it can also use the weapons supplied for this purpose\u2026 including those supplied by us,\u201d he said.
\nThe Kremlin accused the West on Thursday of \u201centering a new round of escalations in tensions.\u201d
\nAnd on Friday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that US-made weapons \u201care already being used to attempt strikes on Russian territory.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is quite eloquent evidence of the extent of US involvement in this conflict,\u201d he said.
\nBut NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, speaking to reporters at a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Prague, responded: \u201cThis is part of efforts by President (Vladimir) Putin and Moscow to prevent NATO allies from supporting Ukraine to defend themselves.\u201d
\n\u201cUkraine has the right for self-defense and we have the right to help Ukraine,\u201d he said.
\nHowever, divisions on the issue between NATO member states have emerged.
\nItalian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that \u201cfor Italy, it is impossible to use our weapons outside of Ukraine.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are not fighting against Russia. We\u2019re defending Ukraine and it is not the same,\u201d he said.
\nThe change in Washington\u2019s thinking was attributed by US officials to Russia\u2019s daily pounding of Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second biggest city.
\nIn the latest Russian strikes on the city overnight, six people were killed and 25 wounded, including two children, officials said.
\nYulia, a local resident who fled to a basement in the night for shelter, said there were several explosions in the night.
\n\u201cWe are all just shocked by what we experienced. Honestly, I wouldn\u2019t wish it on my worst enemy,\u201d she told AFP.
\n\u201cThese are monsters, these are not people. People cannot do such a thing in the 21st century,\u201d she said.
\nRegional governor Oleg Synegubov said the rubble was still being cleared.
\n\u201cThere may be more people under it,\u201d he said.
\nZelensky has pressed Western allies for more support.
\n\u201cOnly together we can stop the madness from Moscow,\u201d he said at a press conference in Stockholm.
\nWhile expressing gratitude to Western allies for weapons supplies, he said there were often delays in deliveries.
\n\u201cIt can take six months or more from the moment the package is approved to the moment it is used\u2026. Our biggest enemy is slow supply,\u201d he said.
\nUkraine has intensified strikes on Russian targets in recent months, claiming drone attacks on military and energy infrastructure targets deep inside the country.
\nRussia\u2019s military said on Friday it had shot down 29 Ukrainian drones overnight that were targeting the port city of Novorossiisk and an oil depot in Temryuk.
\nThe increasing intensity of strikes has come as Russian troops have made gradual advances in Ukraine this year after holding off a Ukrainian counter-offensive last year.
\nRussian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said Moscow\u2019s forces had seized 880 square kilometers (340 square miles) of territory so far in 2024.
\n\u201cThe advance is underway in all tactical directions,\u201d he said at a meeting of the Russian-led CSTO security alliance in Almaty, according to Russian news agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STOCKHOLM Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday hailed a US decision to partially lift restrictions on using US-donated weapons to strike inside Russia as a \u201cstep forward.\u201d Washington gave the green light on Thursday for Ukraine to use US weapons to defend its Kharkiv region on the border with Russia, overcoming previous concerns that authorizing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":60143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65641,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65602\/revisions\/65641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}