Ukraine war: Ukraine attacks in Russia are legitimate – UK ministeron April 26, 2022 at 9:37 am

It would be acceptable for Ukrainian forces to use Western weapons to attack military targets on Russian soil, a UK defence minister has said.

James Heappey said strikes to disrupt supply lines were an “entirely legitimate” part of war.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Nato of engaging in a proxy war and said weapons delivered by the West to Ukraine would be fair targets.

The UK announced it will give Ukraine a small number of anti-aircraft vehicles.

Western countries have donated hundreds of millions of pounds of military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion back in February and Nato and European Union officials are meeting in Germany to discuss further military assistance.

It comes as Russia has focused its forces on the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, with the UK’s Ministry of Defence reporting the city of Kreminna, in Luhansk, has fallen.

Mr Heappey was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about reports that Ukraine had targeted a fuel depot on Russian territory.

The armed forces minister said: “The question is, is it acceptable for our weapons to be used against legitimate Russian military targets by the Ukrainians?

“Firstly, it’s Ukrainians that take the targeting decision, not the people who manufacture or export the kit in the first place. And secondly, it is entirely legitimate to go after targets in the depth of your opponents to disrupt their logistics and supply lines.”

He added that it was also a “perfectly legitimate” part of war for Russian forces to be striking targets in western Ukraine to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines as long as they avoided targeting civilians – “which unfortunately they have no taken much regard for so far”.

On Monday Mr Lavrov claimed the West was “pouring oil on the fire” by providing Ukraine with firepower and repeated warnings that the conflict could lead to a third world war.

But Mr Heappey said the West had been very careful about the donation of weapons to Ukraine which was not a “purely Nato endeavour”.

He said Russia had been saying it was in a conflict with Nato before the war began – “it’s nonsense and [Mr] Lavrov knows it”.

Mr Heappey added he thought the chances of a nuclear war were “vanishingly small”, with no one wanting such an outcome to the conflict.

For months Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been asking Western allies for more weapons to fight off the Russian invasion.

On Monday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced the UK would gift small number of Stormer vehicles fitted with launchers for Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles to give Ukrainian forces “enhanced, short-range anti-air capabilities both day and night”.

He also told the Commons around 15,000 Russian troops have been killed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while 2,000 of its armoured vehicles had either been destroyed or captured.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is chairing the meeting of defence ministers at the US Air Force base at Ramstein in Germany on Tuesday.

Ahead of the gathering there are reports suggesting Germany would pledge to supply anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine.