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Both Berlin and Washington changed their policies on attacking Russian territory in response to Russia’s offensive on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in May. A German government spokesman said at the time that Ukraine “has the right to defend itself against such attacks under international law.”
Washington’s May approval was very carefully worded and limited to the area near Kharkiv, not the same area where Ukrainian troops crossed the border into Russia about 50 kilometers this week.
But the United States didn’t take issue with the intrusion.
“Obviously, we strongly support Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russian aggression,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday, adding that “the policy that we’ve announced has been to ensure that Ukraine is able to respond to attacks coming from just across the Russian border. And yes, in areas where they are currently operating across the Russian border, we have seen attacks coming from there.”
The Defense Department also dismissed concerns that the invasion could escalate the conflict.
Spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Thursday that the move was “consistent with our policy” about what Ukraine can and cannot do with U.S.-supplied weapons, but added: “We do not support long-range aggression against Russia.”
