“Nothing new from our side.” The French Foreign Ministry commented on the permission to strike deep into Russia

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barro neither confirmed nor denied granting Ukraine permission to use SCALP missiles to strike deep into Russian territory. However, answering the questions of journalists in Brussels on November 18, he recalled that Paris was in favor of easing the restrictions, the correspondent of Radio Svoboda reports.

“You heard President Macron… We openly said that this is an option we would consider – regarding the permission to strike targets from where Russia strikes Ukraine. So nothing new from our side,” said Barro.

The head of French diplomacy also reminded of the damage that Russia caused to Ukraine during almost 1,000 days of full-scale war.

“More than 10,000 dead among the civilian population, more than 20,000 wounded, Ukrainian children torn from their families and taken to Russia… In this context, the responsibility of friends and allies of Ukraine is obviously to allow her, when the time comes, to those conditions, which it considers appropriate, to enter into peace negotiations from a position of strength. And for this we have levers that we must use: financial assistance, training (military – ed.) and equipment, and sanctions,” Barro said.

The head of the French Foreign Ministry also emphasized the need to send to Ukraine as soon as possible the tranches of the loan for 50 billion dollars, allocated at the expense of the frozen assets of the Russian Federation, and announced a new sanctions package, which the EU foreign ministers are planning to agree on today.

“Today we will approve a decision on a new set of sanctions aimed at organizations and individuals that support Russia’s military actions. Sanctions should allow us to dry up the resources that Russia has been pouring into this war for two and a half years now,” Barro summarized.

On the evening of November 17, US officials quoted by the media said that the US had authorized limited Ukrainian strikes in response to the deployment of North Korean forces on the battlefield in the Kursk region. US officials said the partial lifting of restrictions was intended to have a “specific and limited” effect on the battlefield and would not change the course of the war.

The French publication Le Figaro reported on November 17 that France and the United Kingdom followed the US in allowing the Ukrainian armed forces to use SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles to strike Russian territory, but later changed its report and deleted this information.