NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told The Economist on May 24 that Western countries should lift their respective bans on Ukraine using their weapons inside Russia.
The newspaper alleged that Stoltenberg's target was US President Joe Biden's policy of limiting Ukraine's use of ATACMS long-range missiles and other weapons inside Russia except for Crimea and the nation's new territories admitted in September 2022.
On May 27, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) - the consultative interparliamentary entity – passed Declaration 489 which urges the bloc's members to "lift some restrictions" on the use of their weapons by the Kiev regime against Russia's "legitimate targets."
NATO PA representatives from nine countries have reportedly not supported the initiative. Earlier, Italy and Germany spoke against the proposal that could lead to the outbreak of a major war between Russia and NATO. The Biden administration has not granted Ukraine a free hand in using its arms against Russia, either.
"The United States has made it clear that it too does not support the lifting of restrictions using American weapons," Scott Ritter, a military analyst and former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, told Sputnik. "There is some debate, discussion and dialog inside the United States to reverse this policy. But, at the present moment, the United States continues to impose restrictions."
However, it's up to NATO member states to decide whether to authorize the use of their weapons by Ukraine against Russia, despite Stoltenberg's calls or NATO PA's non-binding declarations.
Ritter pointed out that "NATO as an institution is not preparing for a larger war with Russia." He referred to the fact that so far NATO has conducted a policy to avoid escalation of the Ukraine conflict and prevent a full-fledged confrontation with Russia.
The crux of the matter is that NATO member states are unprepared for a war with Russia, according to Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the US Office of the Secretary of Defense.
"All the [NATO] countries would have to switch their economies over from a service economy to a full production wartime economy. And they're not capable of it. They can't sustain it. It would take years for them to do that," Maloof told Sputnik.
"I think you're going to see European countries [leaders] like [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban and others that are probably going to begin to chime in here to say, you know, we've had enough of this. I think Italy is already beginning to make noises in the same direction as well as Germany, in addition to Orban," the former Pentagon analyst continued.
The pundits believe that support for the use of NATO-grade weapons by Ukraine stems from the transatlantic alliance's desperation over the Kiev regime's continuous military failures.
In early May, French President Emmanuel Macron told The Economist that Paris could put boots on the ground in Ukraine if frontlines are broken and Kiev officially requests such assistance.
Almost at the same time, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Reuters that Britain had given the Kiev regime permission to strike targets on Russian territory with weapons it provided.
Moscow has repeatedly warned the collective West against deeper involvement in Ukraine's conflict. Russia condemned Macron's statements as provocative and fraught with a risk of further escalation.
Commenting on Cameron's words, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the British foreign minister de facto confirmed that the West is waging a war against Russia using Ukrainians as proxies.
Reflecting on Stoltenberg's remarks last week for The Economist, Zakharova drew attention to the fact that the NATO chief's warmongering rhetoric came ahead of the so-called "peace" conference on Ukraine in Switzerland that is advocating the unworkable Zelensky "formula" while ignoring Russia's position.
"Objectively, the reality is that NATO is in no position to escalate the war and sustain it," Larry Johnson, retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, told Sputnik, reiterating his forecast about the Kiev regime's imminent defeat.
"Yes, they could put troops in. They could provide some temporary assistance to Ukraine. But really, there is nothing that's going to change the outcome or the trajectory of the war," the CIA veteran concluded.