Ukraine can use weapons supplied by Germany against attacks from positions just over the Russian border, Berlin announced Friday.
NATO members France and Poland have already given the same undertaking to Kyiv, as Breitbart News reported.
Their move prompted immediate warnings from the Kremlin of a full-on war with the West as NATO has given its broader approval for the use of Western-supplied missiles in the conflict.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday also gave Kyiv a green light to strike back with American weapons at Russian military assets targeting the country’s second-largest city.
The German government said in a statement that, together with its closest allies and in consultation with Ukraine, it is continually adapting its support to developments in the war, AP reports.
It noted that, in recent weeks, Russia has prepared, coordinated and carried out attacks on the Kharkiv region in particular from areas just over the border in Russia.
“Together we are convinced that Ukraine has the right under international law to defend itself against these attacks,” the statement said.
“For this, it can also use the weapons delivered for that purpose in accordance with its international legal commitments, including the ones delivered by us,” it added.
Meanwhile Russian ballistic missiles slammed into an apartment block in Kharkiv and killed at least four people in a night-time attack, Ukrainian officials said Friday.