1) Warren Murray with Guardian writers and agencies, “Ukraine war briefing: Ukrainians ‘have the right to strike inside Russia’, says David Cameron; France’s Macron stands firm on potentially sending troops; sanctions on Russian gas leave Gazprom with record annual loss. What we know on day 800,” The Guardian, May 3, 2024 (01.06 BST);
2) Patrick Wintour, “David Cameron commits £3bn a year in aid to Ukraine ‘for as long as necessary’; The foreign secretary called the conflict ‘the challenge of our generation’ after making second trip to Kyiv to meet Zelenskiy,” The Guardian, May 2, 2024 (22.07 BST);
3) Christoph B. Schiltz, “Mit dieser Horror-Waffe erreicht Russland die nächste Stufe der Brutalität,” Die Welt, den 2. Mai 2024;
4) Christoph B. Schiltz, “With this horror weapon, Russia reaches the next level of brutality,” Die Welt, May 2, 2024.
Status: 02.05.2024 | Reading time: 6 minutes
Christoph B. Schiltz
By Christoph B. Schiltz
Analysis
Foreign Minister Cameron broke ranks with Joe Biden’s red line prohibiting attacks by Ukraine against targets in Russia with weapons supplied by NATO countries.
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian reported thefollowing:
The UK has promised £3bn a year “for as long as it is necessary” to help Ukraine, David Cameron said on Thursday as he made his second visit to Kyiv since becoming UK foreign secretary.
He also said he had no objection if weapons supplied by the UK were used to strike inside Russia.
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Cameron said in a Reuters interview: “Ukraine has the right to strike inside Russia because Russia is striking inside Ukraine … You can understand why Ukraine feels the need to defend itself.”
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Cameron said: “Ukraine is fiercely defending itself against Russia’s illegal invasion, making a war Putin thought would last days take years. But this war is the challenge of our generation and Ukraine cannot fight it alone.”“We must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win. Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision and vital support to protect and repair Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the UK is standing with Ukraine and we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
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Importantly, Cameron provided clarity on goal of the war.
THIS IS SIGNIFICANT. LET US REPEAT IT.
“This war is the challenge of our generation and Ukraine cannot fight it alone.”
“We must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win. Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision and vital support to protect and repair Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the UK is standing with Ukraine and we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
The mantra of NATO country leaders has been that tbeir countries will support Ukraine “as long as it takes”–leaving open tge questiin of whether the goal is victory or simply avoiding defeat.
Cameron has now explicitly endorsed tge goal of victory. Others will follow. Others will also follow Britain’s example and supply weapons to Ukraine without prohibiting their use against targets in Russia.
The strategic significance of these remarks is HUGE.
At tge same time, Warren Murray et. al. report in The Guardian the following:
Emmanuel Macron has said the question of sending western troops to Ukraine would “legitimately” arise if Russia broke through Ukrainian frontlines and Kyiv made such a request. In an interview with the Economist, the French president maintained his stance of strategic ambiguity, saying: “I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out.”
While the sclerotic decision-making characteristic of the Biden administration shows no movement, its appears that Britain and France understand the dire situation in Ukraine and have the mental agikity to respond appropriately.
We may be witnessing the passing of the mantle of leadership of the Atlantic Alliance from Washington to London and Paris.