MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Those invited to the alleged peace conference in Switzerland should be aware of the NATO Secretary General’s urge to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s strikes on Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
The diplomat noted the statements made by Stoltenberg “who urged NATO countries to lift restrictions on strikes by the Kyiv regime on targets across Russia.”
“It is useful for everyone invited to the allegedly peace conference in Switzerland to know it,” she wrote on her Telegram channel, TASS reported.
Switzerland plans to hold a conference on Ukraine in the Burgenstock resort on June 15-16. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said earlier that Bern had invited more than 160 delegations to the conference on Ukraine, including from the G7, the G20 and BRICS countries. According to Swiss officials, Russia has not been invited.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow would not ask to participate in the conference if it was not wanted there. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, holding the conference in Switzerland is a “road leading nowhere,” with Moscow not seeing the West’s desire to do business in a fair manner. At the same time, Russia has repeatedly stressed that Moscow has never refused to settle the conflict with Kiev through peace talks.
Stoltenberg said earlier in an interview with The Economist that Ukraine should have the possibility of strikes on military targets located on the internationally-acknowledged Russian territory.
New York Times reported on Thursday, views on those restrictions have shifted as Russian forces make battlefield gains.
After making a “sobering” visit to Kiev earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly began urging the administration to let the former Soviet republic use American weapons as it sees fit. A group of U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this week, pressing him to give the Ukrainians the permissions they have requested.
Stoltenberg said he believes NATO members can thread the geopolitical needle by supporting Ukraine’s defense without becoming direct parties to the conflict. “We provide training, we provide weapons, ammunition to Ukraine, but we will not be directly involved from NATO territory in combat operations over or in Ukraine,” he said. “So, that’s a different thing.”
Meanwhile, the United States is providing a new weapons package for Ukraine worth $275 million to include additional high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) ammunition and 155mm artillery rounds, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Friday.
“The United States is announcing a significant new drawdown of weapons and equipment for Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement, Sputnik reported.