Russia has issued a warning that permitting Ukraine to launch Western missile strikes into Russian territory could significantly escalate the conflict.
In a statement, Russia cautioned the US and other Western nations that such actions could have severe and far-reaching consequences, potentially spreading the conflict beyond Europe’s borders.
Russia emphasised the need for restraint and diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation, urging all parties to pursue a peaceful resolution.
Ukraine attacked Russia’s western Kursk region on August 6 and has carved out a slice of territory in the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two.
President Vladimir Putin said there would be a worthy response from Russia to the attack.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the West was seeking to escalate the Ukraine war and was “asking for trouble” by considering Ukrainian requests to loosen curbs on using foreign-supplied weapons, RT reports.
His comments come as Ukraine is urging Western arms donors to greenlight the use of their weapons for long-range strikes deep inside Russia.
On Tuesday, Lavrov said Moscow is interpreting those requests as a distraction from the West’s own role in ratcheting up tensions with Russia.
“This is a ruse. The West does not want to avoid escalation. The West is, as they say, asking for trouble,” he told journalists during a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Shaya Mohsen Al-Zindani of the Aden-based government of Yemen.
Lavrov argued that statements by US officials claiming that Europe would suffer first in a new world war exposed a flaw in American geopolitical thinking.
“Planners in the US are convinced that they can sit on the sidelines” of a hypothetical war with Russia, he suggested.
“The American mentality is that of a master, who sits on the other coast convinced of his safety and that others will do the dirty work for him. He expects others to die for him, not just Ukrainians, but also Europeans, it appears,” Lavrov said.
“We are now confirming once again that playing with fire – and they are like small children playing with matches – is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country,” he added.
“Americans unequivocally associate conversations about Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively,” Lavrov said.
“We have our nuclear doctrine, which is being refined at the moment, by the way, and which the Americans are well aware of,” he said.
Since launching its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently warned of the potential for a wider conflict involving the world’s major nuclear powers.
Source: Saharareporters