by Martin Haffner, Associate Editor
France is still considering allowing Ukraine to target Russian territory with French-supplied missiles, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said, after the US reportedly shifted its policy on the issue.
Multiple Western media outlets reported on Sunday that the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden has reversed its long-standing policy of banning Kiev from using ATACMS missiles to hit targets inside Russia. Ukraine is reportedly expected to deploy the US-supplied munitions in and around Russia’s Kursk Region, where an incursion by Kiev’s forces has continued since early August.
Following reports of the US decision, Paris-based newspaper Le Figaro claimed that the “French and the British had authorized Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with their SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles.” However, the article was later updated, with any mention of France and the UK also allowing Kiev to strike deep into Russian territory being removed.
When asked on Monday to clarify the French government’s stance, Barrot said that President Emmanuel Macron had publicly stated in May that Paris was considering permitting the use of its missiles to strike Russian territory.
“We openly said this was an option that we would consider if it was to allow to strike a target from where Russia is currently aggressing Ukrainian territory. So [there’s] nothing new on the other side,” the minister said, as cited by AFP.
“Nothing new under the sun,” the diplomat added as he talked to journalists ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Belgian capital, Brussels.
SCALP is a long-range air-launched cruise missile jointly developed by France and the UK. Its British version is called ‘Storm Shadow’. Paris and London have provided Kiev with an unspecified number of the weapons since the escalation of its conflict with Moscow in February 2022.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reported US permission to strike deep into Russian territory represented “a qualitatively new spiral of escalation of tensions and a qualitatively new situation in terms of US involvement in this conflict.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier warned that Moscow would view any attacks on Russia’s internationally recognized territory with foreign-supplied weapons as NATO entering the conflict directly, given that Kiev lacks expertise to fire such sophisticated systems on its own. The Russian leader cautioned that in such circumstances, Moscow could opt for an asymmetrical response by arming groups or countries hostile to the West with advanced weaponry.