Kremlin says use of US missiles would be a ‘radical change’ in war

The Kremlin has said that US President Joe Biden’s move to allow Ukraine to use US-supplied longer range missiles to strike inside Russia would be a “radical change in the essence and nature of the conflict.”

In a statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry, the Kremlin added that a move by Ukraine to use the missiles to strike on Russian territory would mean “the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in military action against Russia.”

Although Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on Biden’s decision, his press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the move made it obvious that Washington is “adding fuel to the fire and provoking further tensions” around the war between Russia and Ukraine.

On Sunday, reports emerged that Biden had eased limitations on the use of longer range weapons by Ukraine, allowing the war-torn country to use the US supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMs).

Although the White House has yet to make a formal announcement, a German government spokesperson said on Monday that the German government had been informed of the move.

The weapons, which Ukraine had requested from the US for months, allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia.

Biden had previously ruled out supplying Ukraine with such weapons, saying that doing so would mean bringing about a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO and a dangerous escalation of the conflict.

His change of mind can be attributed to North Korea’s entry into the conflict, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments say up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops have being sent by Pyongyang to fight Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise insurgence earlier this year.

In June, Putin warned that Moscow would retaliate by providing longer-range weapons to others to strike Western targets if NATO allowed Ukraine to use one of its allies’ arms to attack Russian territory.

“The Westerners supply weapons to Ukraine and say: ‘We do not control anything here anymore and it does not matter how they are used,’” Putin said at the time. “Well, we can also say: ‘We supplied something to someone — and then we do not control anything.’ And let them think about it.”

The move brings about an uncertain and new factor to the conflict, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responding in a fairly muted way to the news in his address on Sunday where he said, “The missiles will speak for themselves.”

The decision, which represents a big policy shift from Biden, has been met with mixed responses with the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy declining to say whether the UK would follow the US, adding that giving authorisation for such weapons would risk “operational security and can only play into the hands of Putin.”

President Andrzej Duda of Poland, however, praised the decision as a “very important, maybe even a breakthrough moment“ in the war.

Additional sources • AP