MOSCOW, Russia: Moscow hit out at “hot heads” of US lawmakers on Thursday after calls mounted, including from House Speaker Mike Johnson, for Ukraine to be allowed to fire US donated weapons into Russia.
Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, told reporters Wednesday that it was “not good policy” to keep US weapons donated to Ukraine from being used on Russian soil.
“We know that among US Senators and Congressmen there are very many hotheads who consider it their duty to keep pouring oil on the fire,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, responded in a video posted by Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.
Peskov condemned it as a “completely irresponsible attitude” that could be “dangerous in its consequences.”
He reiterated Moscow’s position that international arms deliveries would not change the outcome of the conflict and vowed that Russia would continue to fight “until it achieves all its stated goals.”
“I think we have to allow Ukraine to prosecute the war in the way it sees fit,” Johnson told reporters in Washington after calls for an end to US President Joe Biden’s policy that US weapons should not be fired at Russia.
They have to be able to defend themselves. And I think it’s not good policy for US to try to micromanage the effort there, he said.
Ukraine regularly launches strikes across the border into Russia, particularly in the Belgorod region, a tactic it sees as just retaliation for attacks on its territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his army launched an offensive in the northeastern region of Kharkiv this month to create a buffer zone to protect his country’s border villages from Ukrainian attacks.
