WAR AND PEACE
Russia has been signalling to the US and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles, then Moscow will consider it a major escalation.
Putin said on Sep 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.
The Kremlin said that it sensed European powers were nervous about Trump’s election, but that they were still “pumping weapons into Ukraine in order to continue this war to the end”.
Peskov was asked about reports that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron wanted to convince US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to fire Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia.
“Nothing can be ruled out,” Peskov said, adding that European leaders still wanted to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
“We, in turn, will continue the SMO (special military operation) until we achieve all our goals,” Peskov said. “The dynamic of the SMO is well understood by the military. They understand well what is happening. And it is probably important to note that no individual types of weapons are able to change this dynamic anymore.”
Putin, who ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, casts the war as a battle between Russia and the declining West, which he says ignored Russia’s interests after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Ukraine and its Western allies say Putin unleashed an imperial-style war against its smaller neighbour and have repeatedly said that if Russia wins the war, then autocratic countries across the world will be emboldened.
Source: CNA
