Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian soil continued Tuesday, about a week after such actions were encouraged by a NATO foreign minister.
Russia blamed the strikes on Ukrainian forces, with the most recent one hitting an oil tanker on an airfield in Kursk. Russia officials said there were two explosions Monday—one at the Engels airfield in the Saratov region and another involving an engulfed fuel truck at the Dyagilevo airfield near the city of Ryazan. Ryazan is southeast of Moscow, while Saratov is about 373 miles from Ukraine. Baza, a Russian news channel, reported on Tuesday that drones targeted a facility in the Bryansk region, about 50 miles inside Russia's border with Ukraine.
During a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on November 29 in Bucharest, Romania, Latvian Foreign Affairs Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said Ukraine should be able to militarily attack inside Russia's border due to Russia targeting critical Ukrainian infrastructure.
"We should allow Ukrainians to use weapons to target missile sites or airfields from where those operations are being launched," Rinkēvičs told Bloomberg.
The Russian Embassy in Riga expressed disillusionment with the comments made by Rinkēvičs, calling them "incitement to unleash a large-scale war."
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Newsweek on Tuesday that President Joe Biden's previously held position remains, that victory for Ukraine involves Russia vacating the nation completely while recognizing its sovereignty.
"President Biden has made it very clear: We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders," the spokesperson said. "We do not know when this war will be over, but we know this: Ukraine will emerge victorious. And the United States will continue to stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes."
On Monday, Russia launched its eighth missile attack in Ukraine in as many weeks, causing power outages that are expected to leave half of Kyiv without electricity for days. Additional missiles launched overnight targeted critical infrastructure near the southern city of Zaporizhzhya.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "most" of about 70 missiles launched by Russia had been destroyed, but the damage is still palpable.
Aid organizations like Mercy Corps have warned of a potential humanitarian crisis because of damage to about half of Ukraine's power grid amid rapidly falling temperatures.
During the meeting in Bucharest on November 29 and 30, NATO foreign ministers in a joint statement disavowed Russia's "persistent and unconscionable attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure."
"Russia's unacceptable actions, including hybrid activities, energy blackmail and reckless nuclear rhetoric, undermine the rules-based international order," the statement said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press gathering in Bucharest that Russian President Vladimir Putin's "brutalization of Ukraine's people is barbaric" and stressed additional aid for Ukraine on behalf of the U.S. That includes a commitment of over $53 million for the sending of equipment to help stabilize and keep Ukraine's energy grid up and running.
The State Department also submitted a request for Congress to approve $1.1 billion to secure Ukraine's and Moldova's energy sectors and restore power supply. When asked whether that includes more weapons so it isn't necessary to continually replace damaged or failing infrastructure, Blinken responded, "We have to do both."
"A part of this is making sure that not only are we getting Ukraine the weapons that it continues to need to defend itself and ward off the Russian aggression, but that some of that is used in a very deliberate way to, as best as possible, protect the energy infrastructure," Blinken said, according to a State Department transcript.
"But it's also critical that even as we're doing that, we of course help Ukrainians get things back online that have been taken offline by Russian bombs and missiles."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned NATO and the U.S. of crossing a red line of military confrontation with Moscow.
"In the context of the West's efforts to contain Russia, the line of the United States and NATO as a whole for an actual military confrontation with us poses a serious threat," Lavrov said Monday in a video address to the Moscow Conference on Non-Proliferation, as reported by Anadolu Agency. "Obviously, this is fraught with a direct clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has not publicly commented about Rinkēvičs remarks.
Newsweek reached out to NATO and the Latvian Foreign Ministry for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
