Polish Foreign Minister Calls on EU to Lift Restrictions on Ukrainian Strikes on Russia

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, during a meeting with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, on Monday, July 22, asked to remove the restrictions imposed by their countries on Ukraine's use of long-range weapons.

“This was our first meeting since the barbaric attack [by Russia] on the children's oncology hospital [in Kyiv],” Sikorski said. “That's why I asked my fellow ministers to lift the national restrictions on the use of long-range weapons. So that Ukraine can prevent such attacks in the future by hitting those planes that fire cruise missiles and those airports from which they take off.”

Sikorski stressed that self-defense does not equal escalation.

“It seems to me that this would be fully self-defense, which is legal under international law. It is not escalation to defend children's cancer hospitals,” Sikorski concluded.

During the 75th-anniversary NATO in Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western officials to lift restrictions on strikes using long-range missiles on military targets within the Russian Federation in order to protect Ukrainian cities.