Officials in Russia issued chilling warnings of World War III on Sunday after the US approved the use of long-range missiles by Ukraine.
President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had “noted these reports.” “If such a decision has been taken,” he added, “it means a whole new spiral of tension and a whole new situation with regard to US involvement in this conflict.”
Peskov accused the Biden administration of “adding fuel to the fire and continuing to stoke tension around this conflict.”
“The West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning,” Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee, was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying: “This is a very big step towards the start of World War Three.”
In September, Vladimir Putin warned that NATO would be in direct conflict with Russia if Ukraine used long-range Western missiles to strike Russia. That challenge is about to be put to the test.
The remarks on Sunday came after US President Joe Biden reversed a ban on the firing of long-range missiles into Russian territory by permitting them to be used against Russian and North Korean forces in the Kursk region.
Ukraine can use US-made ATACMS against Russia
The US President will allow Ukraine to use US-made ATACMS rockets, which have a range of 190 miles (300km)—a decision justified by the presence of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine.
The White House is keen to stress the deployment of North Korean troops into Kursk fueled its decision—that this is the US response to Moscow’s escalation.
Western officials have noted the North Korean deployment means the Ukraine conflict is expanding and becoming something that the United States’ Indo-Pacific adversaries now have a role in and that it has made the war slightly more global for the US.
In Biden’s eyes, this is an escalation in response to an escalation.
Though the White House did not comment publicly, the story first appeared in coordinated briefings for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the news agencies Reuters and Associated Press.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to confirm the news. However, he said any proof about the policy change would emerge on the battlefield if and when the missiles are used.
“Today, there’s a lot of talk in the media about us receiving permission for respective actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves. They certainly will,” Zelenskyy said.
Too late for the missiles to alter the course of war?
CNN says that it is perhaps too late for the long-range missiles to make a meaningful impact on the Russia-Ukraine war. There is a limited supply of ATACMS that Ukraine can get its hands on, so even Ukraine being able to hit deep inside Russia is not going to yield an overnight change in the battlefield.
Analysts have listed the volume of Russian targets that are in range of these missiles—with the Institute for the Study of War listing hundreds of targets—after the Biden administration apparently briefed that Russian airfields in ATACMS range had seen their attack aircraft evacuated deeper inside Russia.
Really, however, Ukraine will not get enough ATACMS to alter the course of the war, CNN concluded.
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