NATO Secretaries-General do not normally attack the policies of the alliance’s biggest and most important member country.
But Jens Stoltenberg, whose ten-year stint in charge is coming to an end, has done just that. In an interview with The Economist on May 24th, he called on NATO allies supplying weapons to Ukraine to end their prohibition on using them to strike military targets in Russia.
Mr Stoltenberg’s clear, if unnamed, target was the policy maintained by Joe Biden, America’s president, of controlling what Ukraine can and cannot attack with American-supplied systems.
U.S. officials have repeatedly said that they do not support or encourage Kyiv's strikes with American weapons deep inside Russia.
The tide nonetheless appears to be shifting amid arguments that Washington's ban meant Ukraine was unable to attack Russian forces as they were building up before crossing the border into Kharkiv Oblast in the renewed Russian offensive that began earlier in May.
"The time has come for allies to consider whether they should lift some of the restrictions they have put on the use of weapons they have donated to Ukraine," said Stoltenberg.
"Especially now when a lot of the fighting is going on in Kharkiv, close to the border, to deny Ukraine the possibility of using these weapons against legitimate military targets on Russian territory makes it very hard for them to defend themselves."
Hofreiter said that lifting the restrictions would be in accordance with international law, which "allows a (state under attack) to attack military targets in the aggressor's country."
Leading U.S. lawmakers, such as House Speaker Mike Johnson and Congressman Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have also criticized the current U.S. policy in recent days, arguing that micromanaging Ukraine's war effort has hindered its ability to effectively defend itself.
McCaul claimed that there is support for ending the policy in Congress but that it is primarily National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and President Joe Biden who still oppose any changes.
After a "sobering visit" to Kyiv earlier in May, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also has reportedly sought to end Washington's ban.
Stoltenberg said he was aware of the possible chance for escalation and emphasized that the goal is to "prevent this war (from) becoming a full-fledged war between Russia and NATO in Europe."
On those grounds, Stoltenberg again repeated earlier statements that there is no "intention to send NATO ground troops into Ukraine."
The notion of sending NATO troops to Ukraine has been hotly debated since French President Emmanuel Macron said in February that he would not "rule out" the possibility of deploying Western troops there.
