KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The Kremlin warned Monday: President Joe Biden’s decision Allowing Ukraine to attack targets in Russia with long-range missiles supplied by the US would ‘add fuel to the fire’ of war And international tensions will rise further.
Added Biden policy shift new elements of uncertainty to the previous night’s conflict 1,000 day milestone Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
In another incident, a Russian ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition struck a residential area in Sumy, northern Ukraine, killing 11 people and injuring 84 others. Another missile barrage caused an apartment fire in the southern port of Odessa, killing at least 10 people and injuring 43 others, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
U.S. government loosens restrictions on what Ukraine can attack with U.S.-made weapons Army Tactical Missile System (ATACM)U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Sunday, after months of ruling out such a move over concerns about escalating the conflict and bringing Russia and NATO into direct conflict. .
The Kremlin immediately condemned it.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It is clear that the outgoing Washington administration intends to continue adding fuel to the fire and take steps that will cause a further escalation of tensions over this conflict, and they have been discussing this.” ” he said.
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia went further at the UN Security Council to commemorate the 1,000th day of the war, saying that the leaders of Britain and France were “eager to take over the outgoing regime and not only their own countries.” Russia is surprised that it is dragging them out as well.” Not only European countries but all of Europe will be in a major escalation with dramatic consequences. ”
The scope of the new shooting guidelines is unclear. However, the change came after the US, South Korea and NATO said: North Korean troops stationed in Russia And apparently it is being sent to help Moscow dislodge Ukrainian troops from Russia’s Kursk border region.
Biden’s decision was prompted almost entirely by North Korea’s entry into the war and was made just before Biden departed for the presidential campaign, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit meeting in Peru.
Russia is slow too Push back the outnumbered Ukrainian army It is located in eastern Donetsk region. Also, devastating air operation Against civilian areas of Ukraine.
Peskov referred journalists to a statement by President Vladimir Putin in September that said allowing Ukraine to target Russia would significantly increase the risks.
That would dramatically change “the very nature of the conflict,” Putin said at the time. “This would mean that NATO countries, namely the United States and European countries, would be at war with Russia.”
Peskov claimed that Western countries, which supply long-range weapons, also provide targeting services to Kiev. “This fundamentally changes the way they engage in conflicts,” he says.
President Putin warned Moscow in June. May provide longer range weapons If NATO allows Ukraine to use allied weapons to attack Russian territory, it will force other countries to attack Western targets. After signing the treaty with North Korea, Putin issued an explicit threat to provide North Korea with weapons, something Russia said could reflect Western claims that Ukraine would decide how to use the weapons. .
“Western countries are supplying weapons to Ukraine and saying: ‘We no longer control anything here and it doesn’t matter how they are used,'” Putin said. said. “Well, you can also say, ‘We gave someone something, and then we have no control over anything.'” And let them think about it. ”
President Putin also reaffirmed Russia’s readiness to use nuclear weapons if it deems a threat to its sovereignty.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Biden’s move “signifies the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in military operations against Russia and a fundamental change in the nature and nature of the conflict.”
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20, has heightened uncertainty about whether his administration will continue military aid to Ukraine. He also vowed to end the war quickly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday gave a muted response to the approval, which he and his government had requested for more than a year, adding: “The missiles will tell everything.”
“The longer Ukraine attacks, the shorter the war will be,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha said on Monday ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting to mark the 1,000th day.
British Foreign Secretary Lamy, who chaired the meeting, declined to comment when asked if Britain would follow the United States and approve the use of long-range missiles. He said doing so would “jeopardize operational security and play into the hands of President Putin.”
France’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nicolas Derivière, who also gave Ukraine long-range missiles, told the Security Council, without directly saying what the country would do, that “Ukraine’s right to legitimate defense does not have to be protected against any military involved in the operation.” This includes the possibility of attacking military targets.” Aimed at territory. ”
Ukraine’s Sibiha said “the situation could change completely” if the United States gives the green light to use long-range missiles against Russia, but others are not so sure.
ATACMS has a range of about 300 kilometers (190 miles) and can reach as far behind the Ukrainian front lines as far as about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), but it has a relatively short range compared to other types of ballistic and cruise missiles.
Patrick Berry, a senior associate professor of security at the University of Bath, said the policy change was “too late to have any significant strategic effect.”
“The net effect of that is probably to slow down the tempo of the Russian offensive that is happening now,” he said, adding that Ukraine could attack targets in Kursk, logistics hubs or headquarters. he added.
Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, agreed that the U.S. action would not change the course of the war, saying that Ukraine “will need a large stockpile of ATACMS, but if the U.S. “We do not have ATACMS and have no intention of receiving it,” he said. Limited. ”
On a political level, the move is a boost for Ukrainians and “gives us an opportunity to try to show that Ukrainians are still viable and worth supporting” as Trump prepares to take office, according to the head of military science. Matthew Saville said. At the Royal United Services Institute, London.
The trigger for the change in policy was the arrival of North Korean troops in Russia, said Grib Volosky, an analyst at the Kyiv-based think tank CBA Initiative Center.
“This is a signal that the Biden administration is sending to North Korea and Russia, showing that the decision to involve North Korean troops has crossed a line that should not be crossed,” he said.
Russian parliamentarians and state media criticized Western countries for what they termed escalatory measures and threatened harsh responses.
“Biden seems to have decided to end his presidential term and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe,'” Leonid Slutsky, a lawmaker, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said this was a “very big step towards the outbreak of World War III” and an attempt to “reduce Trump’s degree of freedom.”
Russian newspapers published similar predictions of doom. “The lunatics who are drawing NATO into a direct conflict with our country may soon suffer greatly,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta said.
Some NATO allies welcomed the move.
Andrzej Duda, president of Poland, which borders Ukraine, hailed the decision as a “very important and perhaps landmark moment” in the war.
“In recent days, we have seen a decisive escalation in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, especially missile attacks that hit civilian objects and killed ordinary Ukrainians.” said Duda.
Foreign Minister Margus Tsakna of Russia’s neighboring country Estonia said easing restrictions on Ukraine was “a good thing”.
“We have said from the beginning that there should be no restrictions on military aid,” he told senior European Union diplomats in Brussels. “And we have to understand that the situation is probably more serious than it was a few months ago.”
But Slovakia’s Prime Minister Roberto Fico, known for his pro-Russian views, said Biden’s decision was an “unprecedented escalation” that would prolong the war.
___
Matthew Lee in Washington, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Danica Kirka in London, Hanna Ahirova in Kyiv, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, and Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic, contributed to this report. Contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war. https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
