Press
In an interview, top US politician Mike Johnson no longer rejects the use of American weapons by the Ukrainians against Russian territory for the first time.
Washington – Is this the next escalation stage in the Ukraine war? A video of an interview with Mike Johnson made the rounds among Ukrainian and Kremlin-critical independent Eastern European bloggers on Wednesday evening (May 22).
US weapons used by Ukrainians against Russian territory? Trump confidant speaks out
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, apparently intercepted by a reporter on his way to an appointment, rejected for the first time the use of US long-range weapons Ukraine against the territory of Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin in Russia no longer categorically.
Explosive: Johnson is considered by Republicans to be a close confidant of the former president Donald Trump. Together they had a US military package for Kyiv For months, the administration of incumbent President Joe Biden had long since prepared a $61 billion package of measures. The Republicans only agreed to it in mid-April.
In the Ukraine war: Kiev wants to use US weapons against Russian territory
Now this: The journalist asked 52-year-old Johnson if he thought the USA should give the Ukrainian armed forces permission to use the recently delivered American weapons against military targets on the Russian mainland. After corresponding voices had become loud in the US Congress. Johnson said: “I think we should allow Ukraine to fight the war as they see fit. She has to be able to defend herself.”
Also explosive: Johnson is seen in the House of Representatives as the man who sets the Republicans’ political agenda for the Trump camp in Congress. And they have actually been critical of the arms deliveries to Kiev in the recent past, at least in the national conservative camp. Is the trend now turning? What is striking is that Johnson’s statements come at a time when the Ukrainian foreign minister has expressly stressed that Ukrainian defense would be enormously helped if those of Putin’s weapons systems that are presumably fired onto Ukrainian territory behind the Russian border could also be attacked. This could include, for example, the devastating Iskander-M medium-range missile.
“We must have this ability to strike military, and I emphasize only military, targets where death comes from. We must not wait until death comes to us,” Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday (May 21) at a meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) in the Ukrainian capital.
Losses for Russia: ATACMS missiles hit Putin troops hard in Ukraine
While the Baltic country Lithuania even has NATO soldiers as trainers in Ukraine demands, one more thing stands out: Johnson chose his sentences after the Ukrainian army was able to demonstrate heavy strikes with the new ATACMS medium-range missiles (range: 300 kilometers) from the USA against Russian targets in their country – for example in Crimea or in the Luhansk region. For comparison: the Donbass front southeast of Kramatorsk is approximately 160 kilometers from the Russian border. And the Kharkiv region borders directly on it. (pm)
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