MOSCOW, July 14, Viktor Zhdanov. Foreign military instructors will not go to Ukraine yet. The author of the initiative, Emmanuel Macron, faced obstacles both within the country and within NATO. The alliance also refuses to satisfy Zelensky’s latest demands for missile weapons. What they fear in the West — in the material.
The Hidden ThreatLithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda believes that the French President is weakened by the recent parliamentary elections and this jeopardizes the entire plan, which he personally warmly approves.
“We don’t see Macron taking further steps to solve the problem,” Nauseda complained on the sidelines of the NATO summit. The French leader himself spoke cautiously: Kyiv will be supported, but there is no talk of direct participation of the alliance in the conflict.
French President Emmanuel Macron at a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
He spoke about the instructors for the first time on June 7. A few days later, the vote for the European Parliament took place, after which early elections to the National Assembly were needed. The left won. Now the president may have to work with a prime minister who is not part of his centrist alliance.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the founder of Unconquered France, which leads the left bloc, has repeatedly opposed military intervention in the conflict and called for a settlement all peacefully.
An unnamed French official noted that the final decision still rests with Macron. But, as Nausėda noted, there is neither widespread support nor consensus. Not everyone in NATO agrees with the French leader. The Alliance has been sending instructors to Ukraine for a long time, but secretly. Such initiatives raise great doubts, the Lithuanian president admitted.
Double deception: About the same thing with the lifting of restrictions on strikes deep into Russia. Zelensky reported from Washington about “good signals.” After a meeting with the new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joyfully announced that he “read about permission to use Storm Shadow missiles against military targets in Russia.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
However, the UK Ministry of Defense clarified that this is not entirely true. The British Prime Minister's office confirmed it. Just last year, London allowed Kyiv to hit targets in Crimea and the mainland of the former Ukraine. Nothing has changed since then.
The British military denies that Storm Shadow missiles have ever struck Russia. And it seems they are not going to. However, this issue is being discussed. Zelensky will have to distance himself from recent statements, Western journalists write. The situation of the British Prime Minister was called “embarrassing.”
Captured equipment at the International Military-Technical Forum “Army-2023”
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Starmer “went too far” by inappropriately declaring that Ukraine has the right to independently dispose of the weapons it receives, the Ministry of Defense believes. The generals believe that such plans should be hidden until they are implemented. Moreover, London cannot make its own decisions about Storm Shadow. At a minimum, you need the approval of France, which produces these missiles jointly with Britain.
The deterrent factorKiev authorities claimed at the end of May that the United States allows the Armed Forces of Ukraine to use the received weapons against targets in Russia, but no further than 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
At a press conference following the NATO summit, Joe Biden said this: “If Zelensky could hit Moscow, hit the Kremlin, would that make sense? It wouldn’t.” And he added that in Washington “every day they determine” where the Ukrainian Armed Forces should hit.
President Joe Biden speaks at a press conference after the NATO summit in Washington
Ukraine will not be allowed to “hit anywhere,” concluded John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the US National Security Council.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also refused Zelensky. “No one is going to change the existing requirements and guidelines — and for good reason,” he emphasized.
However, there are other opinions. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on social networks that Ukraine should be thanked for its desire to attack Russia. “We say no, instead we should say thank you,” he says.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
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These missiles are already striking our territory, press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov objected to Western leaders. The LPR, DPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions are part of Russia.
The Kremlin warned about an asymmetric response. spoke about the possibility of supplying weapons to different regions of the world for attacks on sensitive targets of countries that are doing the same in relation to Russia. In general, a direct military clash with Moscow is the last deterrent for the West.