Russia has claimed that Ukraine used French- and US-supplied missiles in an attack on one of its border regions.Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that it had repelled an attack on the border region of Belgorod by four French-made Hammer missiles and two US-made HARM anti-radar missiles.Its foreign ministry also claimed that Russian forces had earlier shot down multiple Western weapons, and said that British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and Czech Vampire rockets also featured in the attack.While it did not specify where the weapons were fired, it said that Western nations “now authorize their use against Russia” and that they were “playing with fire.”The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.In a statement sent to BI, the White House called the allegations “Russian propaganda.”It added that the US’ “longstanding policy has been clear: we are focused on helping Ukraine defend against assaults it is facing from Russian forces every day, though we do not enable or encourage attacks inside of Russia.”Even so, it said that “Ukraine makes its own decisions about its military operations and how it uses equipment that it manufactures.”Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Western weapons have been supplied to Ukraine for its defense on the understanding that they only be used on Ukrainian territory.
This has limited Ukraine’s ability to take the fight to Russia.Last week, Ukrainian officials renewed their pleas with the White House to be allowed to use US weapons in Russia, Politico reported.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was vocally critical of the US restrictions in a recent interview with Agence France-Presse.The chair of France’s foreign affairs committee, Jean-Louis Bourlanges, has recently called for such restrictions to be lifted for French-supplied weapons, saying that it would end the “unacceptable asymmetry” of the conflict, Le Figaro reported.The French Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Russian claim.The UK government has also increasingly signaled that it is open to allowing Ukraine to strike Russian soil with UK-supplied weapons.The UK’s Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the latest Russian allegations.The reported attack on Russian soil comes as some NATO countries have begun reconsidering the possibility of sending troops into Ukraine.Belgorod, the region Russia’s foreign ministry claims was targeted by Western-supplied weapons, was the staging point for the country’s recent assault on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.Russia has reopened a front there, capturing one town with little resistance and threatening to push toward the city of Kharkiv itself.Ukrainian sources told Politico that they watched 30,000 Russian troops amassing in Belgorod, and there was immense frustration that they couldn’t strike because of the restrictions.”We saw their military sitting one or two kilometers from the border inside Russia and there was nothing we could do about that,” Ukrainian MP Oleksandra Ustinova told the outlet.
