Shawdesh desk:

Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that his country did not want NATO to ‘take part’ in the Ukraine war as other alliance members allow Kyiv to strike Russia with their weapons.

‘We support the continuation of aid to Ukraine and Ukraine’s capacity for dissuasion (against Russia), but we do not want NATO to take part in this war,’ Hakan Fidan said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague.

‘We think a balance must be maintained between these two things, both by the member states and by NATO’ overall, he added, warning that the conflict could spread regionally and spark worse crises.

Turkey has managed to tread a fine diplomatic line by maintaining ties with both Russia and Ukraine since Moscow invaded its pro-Western neighbour in February 2022.

Washington on Thursday gave the green light for Ukraine to use US weapons to defend its Kharkiv region on the border with Russia, overcoming previous concerns that authorising such strikes could drag NATO into a direct conflict with Russia.

Germany on Friday said it too had given Ukraine permission to fire German-delivered weapons at targets in Russia.

Italy’s foreign minister repeated his opposition Saturday to Ukraine using Italian weapons inside Russia, warning of a ‘delicate’ situation where ‘rash’ moves must be avoided.

Support is growing among NATO allies for allowing Ukraine to use Western-donated weapons to strike inside Russian territory—but Rome, a founding member of the alliance, remains opposed.

‘It is a very delicate moment, we must not make false steps’ and must avoid ‘rash steps and declarations’, Antonio Tajani told a meeting in Rapallo, northwest Italy, according to the AGI and ANSA news agencies.

He added that ‘even the US has not authorised the indiscriminate use of its weapons against Russia, but only to strike a base from where the drones depart. They too are very cautious’, AGI reported.

Tajani added that Italy would send another package of aid to Ukraine within ‘weeks’.

But he repeated that ‘we will not send even one Italian soldier to fight in Ukraine because we are not at war with Russia’, AGI reported.

Germany said on Friday it had given Ukraine permission to fire German-delivered weapons at targets in Russia.

The day before, US officials said Washington had partially lifted similar restrictions to allow Ukraine to defend its eastern Kharkiv region, which borders Russia.

The change in Washington’s thinking was attributed by US officials to Russia’s daily pounding of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city.

Russia fired a combined 100 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, in a barrage that targeted energy sites across the country, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.