Its general secretary NATO Gens Stoltenberg said today that “the time has come” for members of the military alliance to review some of the restrictions on the use of the weapons they supply Ukraine with to support it in its fight against Russia.

While the Ukrainian leadership has urged governments from Berlin to Washington to ease restrictions, Western countries have appeared divided in recent weeks over whether the Ukrainian military should be allowed to strike targets inside Russian territory. Some of Ukraine’s allies, including Britain, the Baltic states and Denmark, argue that this is part of legitimate self-defense against the aggressor, but others fear the West could be dragged into war. Belgium’s prime minister said this week that the F-16s his country plans to begin sending to Ukraine this year should only be used within the country’s borders. Germany has also placed similar restrictions on the use of heavy weapons such as Leopard tanks.

“Allies are delivering many different kinds of military support to Ukraine and some of them have imposed certain restrictions on the use of these weapons (…) These are national decisions,” Stoltenberg said in a speech in Prague, ahead of an informal NATO summit in the capital of the Czech Republic. “But I think in light of how this war has played out (…) the time has come to look at some of these restrictions, to give the Ukrainians the ability to really defend themselves,” he added.