The Kremlin announced that any decision to use long-range missiles against Russia will lead to “rising tension”. “The US decision shows a new level of Washington’s involvement in the conflict,” the statement said, in the first reaction from Moscow after the Biden administration gave the green light to Ukraine’s use of ATACMS missiles.
“If the missiles supplied by the US to Ukraine are launched deep into Russia, Moscow will consider the attack not from Kiev, but from the United States itself,” reads today’s Kremlin statement.
The statement, published on the morning of Monday, November 18, added that Putin had made “very clear the positions of the Russian side and that the US decision shows a new level of Washington’s involvement in the conflict”, adding that it was “obvious” that the outgoing Biden administration intends to take steps “to add fuel to the fire and further escalate the tension around this conflict.”
Speaking at his regular daily press briefing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there had been no change to what Vladimir Putin had said in September. The Russian president had said he would consider strikes by US-made weapons on Russian soil as direct NATO involvement in the conflict.
Responding to a question from Tass, Peskov said that Russia knew about the apparent decision of the Joe Biden administration only from reports in the Western media. Asked about reports of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s peace plan, Peskov said any so-called “freezing” of the conflict along the existing front line is unacceptable to the Russian Federation.
