MOSCOW: Russia has warned that if the West allows Ukraine to use long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, Moscow will consider the United States and its allies as direct parties in the Ukraine conflict and will respond with more powerful and destructive weapons. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s State Duma, made this statement on Telegram on Wednesday.
Volodin accused the United States, Germany, France, and Britain of becoming involved in the conflict. He emphasized that this involvement could force Russia to use more advanced weaponry to protect its citizens.
In response to a question about whether the U.S. would lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons, President Joe Biden indicated that the administration is currently evaluating the situation. Reports from last week suggested that the U.S. is nearing an agreement to provide Ukraine with such weapons, though shipments might be delayed due to technical issues.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently accused Iran of supplying Russia with ballistic missiles, a claim that Tehran dismissed as “ugly propaganda.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been urging Western countries to provide longer-range missiles and lift restrictions on their use against targets such as military airfields in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously warned in June that he might deploy conventional missiles capable of reaching the United States and its European allies if they permitted Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons against Russia.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 following the ousting of a pro-Russian president during Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Russian-backed separatists have been fighting against Ukrainian forces since then. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 marked a significant escalation, leading to the most intense confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
Putin portrays the conflict as part of a broader struggle against a declining and decadent West, which he believes has humiliated Russia since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 by encroaching on Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine.
The West and Ukraine, on the other hand, describe the invasion as an imperialistic land grab and have vowed to defeat Russia on the battlefield.
