MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia could use new weapons systems against Ukraine if Kyiv were to attack its territory with long-range U.S. missiles, as Joe Biden finally authorized on a case-by-case basis, said on Monday Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma.
After repeated requests to this effect from Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, the American administration has given the green light to the use of ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems), missiles that can strike Russia in depth, it was reported. learned on Sunday from authorized sources.
The Kremlin denounced Monday a “reckless” and “dangerous” decision.
“This decision is reckless, dangerous, (…) with an increased level of involvement of the United States in this conflict,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists, deploring that the White House was “throwing 'oil to the fire'.
On September 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that the use of long-range American missiles in the conflict between him and Ukraine since February 2022 would de facto lead to “the direct involvement of member states of the “NATO, US and European countries in the war in Ukraine”. This new situation, he specified, would require a response from Moscow.
Vyacheslav Volodin, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, did not give more details on the new weapons systems that Russia could use in this war.
He stressed in a statement that the use of long-range missiles by the Ukrainian army “would completely destroy Russian-American relations.”
Viktor Orban's Hungary, close to Vladimir Putin, judged on Monday that it would be “incredibly dangerous” for Ukraine to use ATACMS.
Slovakia, through its Prime Minister Robert Fico, also firmly rejected this perspective.
“This would be an unprecedented escalation of tensions, a decision compromising the hope of the opening of peace negotiations,” he said in a statement.
(Reuters reporting; written by Lucy Papachristou; French version Mara Vîlcu, edited by Sophie Louet)
