PRAGUE, Czech Republic—NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg Friday downplayed Kremlin threats of escalation after President Joe Biden secretly lifted restrictions on Ukraine using US-supplied weapons against targets inside Russian territory, as five people were killed in an overnight strike on Kharkiv.
The daily pounding of Ukraine’s second-biggest city has caused a shift in Washington’s thinking, which has heretofore resisted allowing Ukraine to use longer-range US weapons to attack Russian territory, fearing it could drag NATO into the direct conflict with Russia.
The Kremlin accused the West on Thursday of “entering a new round of escalations in tensions”.
Stoltenberg, speaking to reporters at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague, responded that “this is part of efforts by President (Vladimir) Putin and Moscow to prevent NATO allies from supporting Ukraine to defend themselves, and, again, Ukraine has the right for self defence and we have the right to help Ukraine.”
US officials said Thursday that Biden had lifted restrictions on Ukraine using weapons supplied by the United States against targets on Russian territory, but only to defend Kharkiv.
Overnight, Russian strikes on a residential area in Kharkiv city killed five people and wounded at least 23 others, including two children, regional police said early Friday, warning residents could still be trapped under the rubble.
