Ukraine will not use the longer-range weapons promised by the United States to strike targets on Russian territory, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said at a news conference in Kyiv on February 5, 2023.
“Only on Russian units”
“We always tell our partners officially that we will not use weapons supplied by foreign partners to fire on Russian territory,” Reznikov said, according to the Kyiv Independent. “We only fire on Russian units on temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory.”
New package
His comments came after the Pentagon announced a security package worth about $2.17 billion that included Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), which can be fired from US-supplied HIMARS launchers and roughly double the range of the rockets Ukraine had been using, as well as Javelin anti-tank weapons.
Western concerns
Western governments have been cautious about supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons over concerns they could be used to strike deep inside Russia and escalate the conflict. Kyiv has repeatedly sought assurances to its partners that it would use such weapons only against Russian forces in occupied Ukrainian territory.
On January 28, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed longer-range missiles, including US ATACMS, to stop “Russian terror.”
Sources
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