TASHKENT, May 27. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov sees controversy between NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s calls to allow Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia and rhetoric about preventing the bloc's direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
"These statements clash," Peskov told REN TV in an interview. When asked to comment on whether the alliance is getting nearer to a direct military conflict with Russia, the Russian presidential spokesman said that NATO was involved in one already.
In an interview with The Economist earlier, the NATO chief proposed that allies reconsider the issue of whether Ukraine should be allowed to attack military targets on Russian soil using Western weapons.
At the same time, Stoltenberg said as he addressed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly that allied forces should not attack Russian capabilities in the air or on the ground in Ukraine, or "we will be in a situation where it is very hard to keep NATO out of the conflict."