Blitz Bureau
THE Kremlin said on November 18 that any U.S. decision to allow Ukraine to fire US missiles deep into Russia would mean it was directly involved in the conflict, which it accused President Joe Biden’s administration of escalating, according to Reuters.
Russia has been telling the West for months how it would interpret such a decision, and that it would raise the risk of a confrontation with the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
When asked about reports by the New York Times and Reuters that Biden’s administration had made the decision on long-range strikes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the reports were not based on any official statement.
“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 said.
President Vladimir Putin made Russia’s position absolutely clear when speaking in St Petersburg in September, Peskov said.
Putin said on September 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean “the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine” because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.
“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.
Reuters reported the Biden administration’s decision on November 17, citing two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision. The New York Times also reported the decision.
Sources quoted in both reports presented the move as partly in response to the reported arrival of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region to help repel a Ukrainian incursion. One Russian official close to the Kremlin who spoke on condition of anonymity said the U.S. move, if confirmed, was an extremely provocative one for an outgoing administration but would not change the outcome of the war.
