Kremlin reacts to Biden’s reported Ukraine move

Washington risks escalating the conflict by giving Kiev permission to use US long-range weapons against Russia, Dmitry Peskov has said

Reports that US President Joe Biden has permitted Kiev to conduct long-range strikes using donated American weapons, if confirmed, indicate a dramatic escalation of the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Several news outlets claimed on Sunday that Biden had agreed to further reduce restrictions on how Kiev can use Pentagon-provided weapons. The US president reportedly allowed the government of Vladimir Zelensky to strike Russia’s Kursk Region with ATACMS ballistic missiles. The ‘victory plan’ that the Ukrainian leader submitted to the US government in September requires the unrestricted use of Western weapons.

Peskov said that Moscow’s position on the issue was formulated clearly by President Vladimir Putin earlier this year, who has said that attacks along the lines requested by Zelensky would be impossible without the direct contribution of intelligence and military expertise. If conducted, such strikes would mean that “NATO nations are at war with Russia,” he warned.

When asked whether President-elect Donald Trump would reverse the decision when he takes office in January, Peskov declined to comment directly. He said instead that if media reports are confirmed, “that would certainly be a qualitatively new spiral of escalation of tensions and a qualitatively new situation in terms of US involvement in this conflict.”

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