Kremlin warns US over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles against Russia
- 18 November, 06:59
Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine use use-made long-range missiles in strikes deep into Russia has sparked fury in Russia. On Monday, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused the outgoing Biden administration of fuelling the conflict.
“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps to continue adding fuel to the fire and continue to provoke tension around this conflict,” Peskov said.
He reminded Russian President Vladimir Putin’s earlier statement that Western countries’ approval of such a move would mean “the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine.”
The Kremlin spokesperson stressed that the Biden administration’s decision on long-range missiles was not officially confirmed and was based on media speculations. “If such a decision was indeed formulated and brought to the Kyiv regime, then this is a qualitatively new round of tension and a qualitatively new situation from the point of view of U.S. involvement in this conflict,” Peskov went on saying. Russian MP Leonid Slutsky warned that the US decision would "inevitably lead to a serious escalation, threatening serious consequences".
Russian state media also expressed fury at Biden administration for loosening limits on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons. "Departing US president Joe Biden… has taken one of the most provocative, uncalculated decisions of his administration, which risks catastrophic consequences," declared the website of the Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Monday morning.
US media reported on Sunday, citing unnamed US officials, that Biden administration loosened limits on Ukraine’s use of US-supplied long-range missiles just two months before the president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and after months of plea by President Volodymyr Zeleskiy to authorize the use of such weapons in its attacks deep into Russia.
