With 425 votes in favor, 131 against, and 63 abstentions, EU parliamentarians endorse a non-binding resolution asking member states to ease limitations on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons against Russian territory.
Moscow has chastised the European Parliament for adopting a resolution that calls on EU nations to permit Ukraine to utilize Western weapons to strike military targets within Russia.
In a plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday, EU lawmakers approved the resolution, which is non-binding and does not represent the position of the bloc’s 27 members, with 425 votes in favor, 131 against, and 63 abstentions.
The document “calls on the member states to immediately lift restrictions on the use of Western weapons systems delivered to Ukraine against legitimate military targets on Russian territory.”
Kiev has been begging its friends to let it utilize armaments it has been given to attack “legitimate” military targets located deep within Russian territory, such as the air facilities that Russian bombers use to assault Ukraine nonstop.
The present situation “hinders Ukraine’s ability to fully exercise its right to self-defence under international public law and leaves Ukraine exposed to attacks on its population and infrastructure,” according to the resolution.
“A global conflict”
President Vyacheslav Volodin of the Russian lower house Duma denounced the decision, echoing a previous warning from President Vladimir Putin and threatening a “tough response” from Russia if the resolution were implemented.
With a warning that Russian missiles could strike Strasbourg minutes after launch, Volodin declared, “What the European Parliament is calling for leads to a world war using nuclear weapons.”
On the Ukrainian end, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga praised the resolution, citing the European Parliament’s “decisiveness and leadership” as evidence.
Kiev claims that additional leeway to strike Russian airfields and other military targets farther back from the front lines is essential to Moscow’s offensive.
Although the EU nations are still at odds over the matter, the US and Britain have been talking about enabling it to do precisely that.
Putin forewarned this month that approving the use of long-range weapons deep within Russia would place NATO forces “at war” with Moscow.
At the moment, Washington gives Ukraine permission to attack only Russian targets located in occupied areas of Ukraine and some areas of the Russian border that are directly connected to Moscow’s military activities.
