"We should let them attack Russia"

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs called on NATO to "allow" Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons for strikes on Russian territory.

"We should let them attack Russia"

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs called on NATO to "allow" Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons for strikes on Russian territory.

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EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT

The senior diplomat said this in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest.

In particular, the weapon should be used to attack sites used by Moscow to launch missile strikes on Ukraine's critical infrastructure, Rinkēvičs suggested.

"We should allow Ukrainians to use weapons to target missile sites or airfields from where these operations are launched," he said.

While Moscow has repeatedly warned the West not to "pump" Ukraine with various weapons, suggesting that such behavior could eventually lead to direct conflict between the US-led NATO alliance and Russia, Rinkēvičs dismissed such concerns.

The bloc "should not be afraid" of escalation, he said. Latvia, along with other Baltic states, is among the most vocal supporters of Kyiv in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The country's top officials have repeatedly visited Kyiv to show their support, with the latest visit coming over the weekend when Rinkēvičs, along with his counterparts from Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In recent weeks, Russia has repeatedly carried out massive strikes on Ukrainian electronic networks and military infrastructure. The attacks followed an explosion that damaged the Crimean bridge connecting mainland Russia with the Crimean peninsula.

Moscow directly blamed Ukraine and its foreign backers, namely Great Britain, and described the attack as "terrorist". Kyiv and London, however, denied their involvement.