Russia: US adding ‘fuel to the fire’ with Ukraine missiles decision

The Kremlin on Monday issued an angry response to a reported U.S. decision to allow Ukraine to use Western-provided missiles to strike deep into Russian territory, accusing Washington of adding “fuel to the fire” in a war Moscow launched almost three years ago. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reportedly said it marked a “qualitative increase in the level of” U.S. involvement in what Moscow calls a special military operation, but the majority of the international community has condemned it as an illegal invasion against Ukraine’s sovereign borders. 

Ukraine is now occupying a swath of Russia’s Kursk region after a surprise incursion across the border in August, and for months has lobbied President Biden publicly to lift restrictions on U.S.-made weapons systems to push Russia back, and target Russian military targets across the border. 

American weapons like ATACMS are able to hit targets at a range of approximately 190 miles. Biden partially lifted the ban in May. The U.S. reportedly made the more sweeping decision following Russia’s deployment of up to 10,000 North Korean soldiers to the front line. 

It also comes about two months before President-elect Trump enters office, having promised during his campaign to end the war in a day. 

Peskov referred Monday to comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin in September that warned Moscow would view the U.S. and NATO in direct conflict with Russia if the U.S. granted permission to Ukraine to use long-range missiles far-beyond Russia’s borders to hit targets. 

“If this decision is taken, it will mean nothing less than the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine,” Putin said at the time. 

“This will be their direct participation, and this, of course, will significantly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.”

Putin did not address what measures Moscow would take in response, but has in the past talked about the option of arming enemies of the U.S. and its partners with Russian weapons to strike Western targets abroad, Reuters reported. 

Biden’s deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, would not confirm reports of the U.S. shift while speaking with reporters at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“I will say, with regard to the comments that came out of Russia, the fire was lit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine So, I think this notion of fuel on the fire is, frankly, a side issue to the main issue, which is Russia waging a war of aggression across a sovereign border, into Ukraine, and continuing to do so,” he said, also pointing to the arrival of North Korean troops and “a major escalation” starting Sunday of Russia aerial attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.
 
“So, I would put the question back to Russia about who’s actually putting fuel on the fire here, and I don’t think it’s the Ukrainians,” he added.

In June, Putin warned he could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the U.S. and European allies if Ukraine was granted permission to strike deep into Russia. 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly address on Sunday, referred to the reports of the U.S. lifting restrictions, but said he wanted to see action. He said “strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves. They certainly will.”

Updated: 2:12 p.m.