Reports that US President Joe Biden has permitted Kiev to conduct long-range strikes on Russia using 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 reduce restrictions on how Kiev can use US weapons, reportedly allowing Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky order ATACMS ballistic missile strikes on Russia’s Kursk Region. The ‘victory plan’ Zelensky submitted to the US government in September requires the unrestricted use of Western weapons.
Moscow’s position on the issue was formulated clearly earlier this year by President Vladimir Putin, who has said that attacks along the lines requested by Zelensky would be impossible without the direct contribution of Western intelligence and military expertise, Peskov stated. 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. Instead, he warned 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.”
Trump claimed on his campaign trail that he could end the Ukraine crisis in 24 hours, if elected. The president-elect’s supporters have accused Biden of undermining his future policies by escalating the conflict. Voters have given Trump a mandate to disengage from foreign wars, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has argued.
Neither Kiev nor Washington have confirmed the reports. Zelensky mused in a daily video post on Sunday that “strikes are not made with words” adding that “such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.”
The Zelensky government has objected to Western diplomatic engagements with Russia which have taken place since Trump’s victory. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz broke a two-year pause last week by phoning the Russian president.
Zelensky launched an incursion into Kursk Region in August, claiming that seizing Russian land will give his government a bargaining chip at future peace talks. Kiev has lost approximately 33,250 troops and thousands of heavy weapons in the endeavor so far, according to Russian Defense Ministry estimates.