The US should encourage Ukrainian strikes on targets in Russia

The U.S. Helsinki Commission has stated that the United States should allow Ukraine to strike with U.S. weapons against Russian Armed Forces forces in Russia's border regions. These forces are supporting the offensive in the Kharkiv region, in particular by firing on Ukrainian territory.

This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The Helsinki Commission is a non-governmental organization established by the US Congress in 1975 to monitor and promote compliance with the Helsinki Accords and other OSCE commitments.

On May 15, the Commission stated that the United States should “not only allow, but encourage” Ukrainian forces to strike at Russian troops deployed and firing from the Russian border areas as part of offensive operations in the northern Kharkiv region.

The ISW emphasizes that Ukrainian strikes on forces in Russia that directly support offensive ground operations in the north of the Kharkiv region would be defensive in nature, and it would be incorrect to characterize such actions as an “offensive.”

ISW analysts insist that the US restrictions on Ukraine's ability to strike military targets in Russia have created shelters in the Russian border regions from which Russian aircraft can launch planned bomb and missile strikes on Ukrainian positions and settlements. These shelters also allow the occupiers' forces to freely accumulate before being deployed to the territory of Ukraine.

“Such US policy seriously undermines Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russian offensive operations in the north of the Kharkiv region,” the Institute's report says.

Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 16/05/2024