Last week, tensions between Russia and the West appeared to escalate to a dangerous new level when President Vladimir Putin ordered military drills involving tactical nuclear weapons near the Ukrainian border. The Kremlin made clear that the drills were in response to statements by Western leaders about the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine and the use of Western weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

On May 2, during a surprise visit to Kyiv, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron pledged to keep helping Ukraine “for as long as it takes” and suggested that Ukrainians were free to use British weapons in order to strike Russian territory. This could pertain to the Franco-British Storm Shadow missiles as well as drones the United Kingdom had pledged to supply to Ukraine in their thousands.

While Western countries have been supplying Ukraine with weapons, they have explicitly made clear that they cannot be used for attacks on Russian soil. For this reason, until now, Ukraine has been using its home-made drones and missiles against civilian and military targets inside Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, has repeatedly suggested that NATO could potentially end up deploying troops to Ukraine. He reiterated it this month in an interview with the Economist published on May 2. The French president refused to provide more details, insisting that the European Union should maintain “strategic ambiguity” and leave the Russians guessing about its real intentions.

But the Kremlin has chosen not to play the guessing game. The announcement of military drills involving tactical........

© Al Jazeera