September 15, 2024 | 00.09
READING TIME: 4 minutes
There Russia’s response to US green light for Kiev to strike with long-range missiles deep into Moscow ‘will be brutal’This is the warning launched by the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov who then specified that, according to Russia, the decision has already been made.
Vladimir Putin, he then stressed, “has already said everything about this. We will respond brutally. There is an element of serious risk because our opponents in Washington, London and elsewhere are underestimating the degree of danger of the game they continue to play.”
Meanwhile, new threats to Ukraine have also come from Dmitry Medvedevformer Russian president and number two on Moscow’s National Security Council. Commenting on the possibility of using Western long-range missiles, Medvedev said that Moscow already has formal grounds for resorting to nuclear weapons after Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region, but could instead use some of its new weapons technologies to reduce Kiev to “a giant molten place.”
Russia, he added, could destroy the capital of Ukraine only with its non-nuclear weapons. So far it has ‘chosen’ not to do so, he wanted to point out, then stressing that “patience has its limits”.
US and UK ‘unwavering’ support for Kiev
The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Meanwhile, he said that the UK and the US had reached a “strong position” in seeking a solution to the conflict in Ukraine after his meeting with President Joe Biden. With one fixed point: the unwavering support for Kiev against Russia, until Vladimir Putin’s defeat in the war.
Starmer described his talks with Biden as “long and productive”, but declined to elaborate on what decisions the two have made regarding Ukraine’s potential use of Western weapons against Russian targets.
At the start of their meeting in the White House Blue Room in Washington DC, Biden said “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin” when asked about the Russian president’s threats against Nato. Asked what they had decided about Ukraine’s potential use of long-range missiles, Starmer said: “We had a broad discussion about strategy in Ukraine, of course, in the Middle East and other parts of the world.”
The two leaders reportedly said little about the most important issue hanging over their meeting: whether American allies like Britain might allow Ukraine to use their weapons to attack military targets deep inside Russia. Putin this week warned against such a move.
At the start of the meeting, Starmer said the coming weeks and months would be “crucial” for Ukraine and that it was “important” that the two countries continue to support the Eastern European nation in its fight against Russia. The meeting comes as Zelensky has expressed frustration over continued restrictions on the use of Western weapons against Russian targets.
Concern over escalation was one reason Kiev has not yet been given the green light for the unrestricted use of Western weapons. Iran has been hit by sanctions from the UK and US after the two countries formally accused Tehran of supplying ballistic missiles to Russia. Lammy and Blinken announced further financial support for Ukraine, including a package of £600 million ($788 million) from the UK and $717 million from the US to meet immediate humanitarian, energy and stabilisation needs.
The UK package includes a reaffirmation of Rishi Sunak’s £242m pledge, as well as $484m in World Bank loan guarantees by the end of the year, while the US package includes $325m to support Ukraine’s energy needs.
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