Biden’s outgoing admn adding fuel to fire, will respond: Kremlin
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia would respond to what it called a reckless decision by Joe Biden’s administration to allow Ukraine to fire American missiles deep into Russia, which it said would draw the United States directly into the conflict.
Russia has been warning the West for months about how it would interpret such a decision, saying it would raise the risk of a confrontation with the US-led NATO alliance.
The New York Times and Reuters reported that Biden’s administration had made the decision on long-range strikes, though there was no official confirmation from Washington.
“This decision is reckless, dangerous, aimed at a qualitative change, a qualitative increase in the level of involvement of the United States in this conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He said President Vladimir Putin had made Russia’s position clear when speaking in St Petersburg in September.
Putin said on September 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean “the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine” because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.
“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps to continue adding fuel to the fire and continue to provoke tension around this conflict,” Peskov said.
10 dead, 44 hurt in Odesa
- Kyiv: A Russian missile attack killed 10 people and wounded 44 in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday, local governor Oleh Kiper and national police said
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that a Russian ballistic missile had hit a residential neighbourhood, and that an apartment building, a university building and an administrative building had been damaged
- Later on, a Russian missile hit a residential building in the Sumy region, killing 11 and wounding 89
