Washington's reaction to Moscow’s recent massive airstrikes on Ukrainian military targets demonstrates the effectiveness of the operation, Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said on Friday.
During the week, 50 “group” strikes and a single “massive” barrage of precision weapons were launched against Ukrainian military targets, hitting all of them, according to a statement by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday.
Commenting on the Russian strikes, US President Joe Biden said that “the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine” and accused President Vladimir Putin of threatening “some of our NATO allies.” “The risk rises that the United States gets pulled in directly,” Biden added.
“The American reaction to the strikes of the Russian Aerospace Forces demonstrates the effectiveness of the special military operation,” Antonov said. He noted that Washington itself admits that it is uniting states around itself “[to wage] a hybrid war against Russia.”
The goals of Russia’s opponents remain the same — to defeat it on the battlefield, as well as in the economic sphere, and “bring a split into society,” the envoy said. Despite their efforts, the result is the “opposite” – Russia has become “more monolithic” and the effectiveness and combat-readiness of its army has “sharply increased,” Antonov added.
“This is confirmed by today’s successful strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces on military targets of the Kiev regime,” he said.
Antonov stressed that if Washington had “at least a shred of compassion” for the Ukrainian people, “then we can clearly see the solution – immediately stop the hybrid war.” Statements calling for “an even more violent military confrontation” will “lead to serious consequences not only for regional, but also for global security,” he said.
Biden said earlier this month that Putin “won’t stop” if Russia achieves victory in the Ukraine conflict, claiming he might “keep going” and attack a NATO ally.
Putin dismissed these remarks as “complete nonsense,” suggesting that his American counterpart “understands that” but has to stick to the narrative to justify his “mistaken policy” on Russia.
On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that Russian forces had successfully thwarted “the much-hyped counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces announced by Ukraine and its NATO allies.” Since the start of hostilities, Kiev has lost over 383,000 troops killed and wounded, over 14,000 heavy weapons and more than 500 aircraft, according to Shoigu.
Moscow has repeatedly reiterated that the goals of its military operation are the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine and its neutral status, stating that it would be preferable to achieve this through political and diplomatic means, but that the West and Kiev reject such a path.