Macron supports Ukraine being able to attack Russian positions while Scholz emphasizes kyiv’s right to “defend itself”

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MESEBERG (GERMANY), May 28. (DPA/EP) –

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, held a meeting this Tuesday in German territory after which the French leader was in favor of Ukraine being able to attack strategic military positions from which Russia attacks them. , while the German leader has limited himself to supporting kyiv’s right to “defend itself.”

On the one hand, Macron has addressed an issue that has gained some relevance in recent days, which is the fact that the allied powers give their approval to the Ukrainian Armed Forces to attack strategic positions in Russia, a matter that since The Kremlin have warned that it would demonstrate NATO’s involvement in the conflict.

“We believe that we should allow them to neutralize the military sites from which missiles are fired and basically the military sites from which Ukraine is attacked,” said Macron, who however has been categorically against allowing kyiv to attack. civilian capabilities” and other “military objectives” of Moscow.

“Ukrainian soil is being attacked ‘de facto’ from bases located in Russia. How do you explain to Ukrainians that they must protect their cities? (…) If you tell them: ‘You must not reach the point from which the missiles are fired’ , then he is basically saying: ‘We supply you with weapons, but you must not defend yourselves,'” he said.

For his part, Scholz has been more ambiguous and has stressed that Ukraine should have the right to “defend itself” from Russian attacks as long as it complies with International Law. “This has worked well in practice so far and will undoubtedly continue to do so,” said the German chancellor.

The United States, France, Germany and other allied powers that have provided military support to Ukraine have until now made these deliveries conditional on kyiv not attacking Russia out of fear that NATO could become part of the war. This issue could change in the coming days, as acknowledged by the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg.

FRENCH INSTRUCTORS IN kyiv

During his press conference, Macron announced that Paris plans to present next week – taking advantage of the visit of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to France – a plan on the possible deployment of French military instructors on Ukrainian territory after The Kiev authorities confirmed it the day before.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed on Monday that negotiations with France on this matter were underway, thus qualifying the previous announcement by his commander in chief, Oleksander Sirski, who had announced that the agreement was already closed. Macron has now acknowledged that communication on this matter is “uncoordinated and unfortunate.”

The Ukrainian Government has been requesting for months that its soldiers not be sent abroad to receive instruction in the use of weapons supplied by the West, but rather that they be trained in their own country to improve the effectiveness of the maneuvers. At the moment no official program has been finalized.

President Macron has also raised on several occasions the possibility of sending ground troops to Ukraine, although Western allies stepped up to reject this possibility.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO UKRAINE

On the other hand, Chancellor Scholz has taken the opportunity to defend that both Germany and France want the main Western industrialized nations to provide financial aid to Ukraine, for which the possibility of using the income from frozen Russian assets is already being studied.

“We want to give Ukraine access to billions of additional financing so that it can reliably provide its defense and thus further increase the security of all of Europe,” said Scholz, who has acknowledged pursuing the objective of uniting and strengthening efforts. of the Member States of the European Union and the G-7.

The United States has recently pointed to the possibility that the G7 could grant Ukraine a million-dollar loan guaranteed by interest on the frozen funds of the Russian Central Bank. EU members have responded cautiously to this proposal.

Scholz and Macron have taken the opportunity to highlight the collaboration between Berlin and Paris despite the differences that have become evident in recent months, especially after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the way in which European powers should respond to the conflict.

“We will always agree and move forward,” Macron highlighted, while Scholz spoke in the same terms and stressed that Germany and France “always reach an agreement.” “The probability that an understanding will occur between the two of us and also work well for many others is quite high,” the German leader stressed.