C’is the end of a wait of several months. However, Volodymyr Zelensky did not indulge in great outpourings of joy when reacting to the green light from the United States for his country to finally use long-range missiles on Russian territory.
Quoted by AFP, the Ukrainian president declared in a speech given on Sunday evening, November 17, that “strikes are not carried out using words.” “Things like this are not announced,” he said again according to the press agency. The head of state continued in this cautious tone by warning that “the missiles will speak for themselves”.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that Volodymyr Zelensky began his speech by remarking that “many media are reporting that we have received authorization to take appropriate measures” and by emphasizing the importance of “ long-range capability” of these missiles.
On Sunday, an American official told AFP that the United States had “given the green light to the use of long-range missiles”. This announcement comes as the election of Donald Trump puts Ukraine at risk of a reduction, or even a halt, in sending aid, crucial to continuing to wage the war. The former tenant of the White House, who is preparing to return to the premises in January 2025 after four years of absence, claimed during the campaign to be able to end the war by talking with Vladimir Putin.
Volodymyr Zelensky has been insisting for months that he can strike Russia on its territory using British and American long-range missiles.
Red line for Putin
In the event that Joe Biden's administration confirms this authorization, it would lead to “a fundamentally new situation in terms of the involvement of the United States in this conflict”, observed Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, after the AFP. “It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take measures to continue to add fuel to the fire and provoke a further rise in tensions,” he added.
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Kangaroo of the day
Answer
If strikes occurred in Russia, they would be “not carried out by Ukraine, but by the countries which give authorization”, according to Vladimir Putin, quoted by Dmitri Peskov. The Russian president considers that the coordinates of the targets would necessarily be provided by the West.
In the past, Vladimir Putin had already warned that such authorization constituted a red line meaning that “the NATO countries are at war with Russia”.
