Will Ukraine Hit Russia With Western Arms? – OpEd

“All is Fair in Love and War,” has a great meaning which is “Nothing is out of bounds when it comes to love and war”. It has been seen in the past that one goes to any extent to achieve the desired outcome. Everything we do should have some limits because if there are no limits, it will ultimately create chaos. So, where are the “Moral and Ethics” values? Eventually, that allows you to be deceitful to fulfill your objectives in the situation of love and war. “Victory attained by deceit is better than open victory.” This quote reflects the context of statecraft during Chanakya’s era. However, ethical conduct is generally emphasized in Chanakya Niti.

NATO: Permit Strikes Deep into Russia 

NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg: “Alliance members should let Ukraine strike deep into Russia with Western weapons” (told in an interview to The Economist on May 24), a view supported by some European members of the transatlantic alliance but not the US so far. 

Lawmakers from all 32 NATO states adopted a declaration on May 27 urging alliance members to allow strikes on military targets inside Russia. “Ukraine can only defend itself if it can attack Russia’s supply lines and Russian bases of operation. It is time to recognize this reality and let Ukraine do what it must,” stated NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Michal Szczerba.

France and Germany said that Ukraine should be permitted to use their weaponry against targets inside Russia from which Moscow attacks Ukraine. While addressing the media (May 28), alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron outlined that French weapon supplied to Ukraine, including long-range missiles, were permitted to strike targets within Russia since Ukraine is being attacked from bases in Russia. However, Macron emphasised that “we must not allow them to strike other targets in Russia,” including civilian or additional military sites.

Western allies of Ukraine have maintained a long-standing policy that donated weapons should be strictly used within Ukrainian territory. The issue is a controversial one, with fears from Western leaders that if their weaponry is used to strike inside Russia, it would escalate the violence and trigger a wider war involving NATO.

Ukrainian President Zelensky has also repetitively asked permission from his allies to expand the usage of the provided weapons to strike inside Russia. “Why can’t we use weapons to destroy them where they are massing?” President Zelenskyy asked the New York Times last week.
 The US, the largest arms supplier to Ukraine, has so far prohibited Kyiv from firing its weapons inside Russian territory over escalation concerns.

Secretary Blinken; “We have neither encouraged nor enabled strikes beyond Ukraine’s borders. As I have previously stated, Ukraine must independently determine the most effective strategies for its defense. Our commitment is to ensure that Ukraine possesses the necessary equipment to achieve this objective.” A clever statement.

Russian President Putin Warns

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West (May 28) that “NATO members in Europe were playing with fire by proposing to let Ukraine use Western weapons to strike inside Russia, which he said could trigger a global conflict. Putin said Ukrainian strikes with long-range weapons would need Western satellite, intelligence, and military help — so the West would have to be directly involved in such attacks — do they want a global conflict?”.

President Vladimir Putin said sending French troops to Ukraine would also be a step towards global conflict and that smaller countries considering deeper involvement “should be aware of what they are playing with” as they had small land areas and dense populations. This is a factor that they should keep in mind before talking about striking deep into Russian territory. This is a serious thing, and we are of course watching it very closely.” 

Switzerland to Host the first Summit on Peace on Ukraine

Switzerland is hosting the first Summit on Peace in Ukraine from 15-16 June 2024 without Russia! The goal is to provide a forum where world leaders discuss paths towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, based on international law and the UN Charter. Over 160 delegations have been invited. The Swiss government said on Thursday that “at this stage” Russia is not among the 160 delegations invited to talks to be held in Switzerland in mid-June aimed at helping bring about peace in the conflict between Moscow and Ukraine. “Switzerland is convinced that Russia must be involved in this process,” the Swiss government said in a statement. “A peace process without Russia is not possible.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning She while responding to Ukrainian President Zelensky’s invite to Chinese and US leaders to join the peace summit next month in Switzerland said, “Along with the participation by Moscow, the conference should “involve the equal participation of all parties and a fair discussion” on peace plans. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any such conference was “hopeless” without Russia’s participation.

Russia’s Kharkiv offensive has highlighted the military absurdity of current restrictions on the use of the Western weapons supplied to Ukraine. Russian commanders are well aware of Ukraine’s inability to strike back and are actively exploiting the border zone as a safe haven to concentrate forces and launch bombardments. Understandably, this is fueling calls among Ukraine’s allies for a major rethink. “All is fair in love and war,” and this may just be an excuse how and with what has the Ukraine’s forces been hitting the Russian forces and what is stopping Ukrainian military commanders to hit Russia’s Kharkiv offensive with whatever weapons available. But how have the drones been attacking deep inside Russia and how does one explain the drone lethal deep strikes? Do we take it that all the ammo supplied by the west since the beginning has all been dumped over Ukraine?

They should take note of Secretary Blinken’s statement; “Ukraine must independently determine the most effective strategies for its defense”. Pressure is now growing on US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to use West-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory from NATO and President Zelensky. So, the ball is in President Zelensky’s court to take the hard calculated risky decision as his country is suffering. President Zelensky himself appears to be scared of the Russian retaliation. He also cleverly wants a green signal to ‘Go Ahead’ so that he continues getting unhindered western and NATO support.