The Kremlin has issued yet more warnings following reports that the Biden administration could soon greenlight long-range attacks by Kiev forces on Russian territory using US-supplied arms.
Both the UK and Canada are on board, we reported earlier, and British Prime Minister Ken Starmer is visiting Washington where he's directly lobbying Biden to jump on board and grant Zelensky's urgent request to lift all restrictions on Western weaponry.
However, The New York Times suggests that saner minds are prevailing at this point. "President Biden’s deliberations with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain about whether to allow Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range Western weapons were fresh evidence that the president remains deeply fearful of setting off a dangerous, wider conflict," the publication writes.
Let's hope this is the case, given this is arguably the most dangerous moment and decision-point of the war to date. Pentagon leadership has recently stressed that granting the permission for long-range strikes will do little strategically to change the battlefield, where Russian momentum has continually gained in eastern Ukraine.
Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov on Friday added to prior Kremlin warnings, telling Rossiya 24 channel that he fears American leadership and the people are under "illusion".
He said they seem to think that "if there is a conflict, it will not spread to the territory of the United States of America."
Antonov continued by stressing that Americans can't hide from nuclear war if this unthinkable happens. "I am constantly trying to convey to them one thesis that the Americans will not be able to sit it out behind the waters of this ocean. This war will affect everyone, so we constantly say – do not play with this rhetoric," Antonov stated according to state media translation.
As for UK PM Starmer's visit to Washington, The Wall Street Journal had earlier previewed that "While the final decision on Storm Shadow will be made by the U.K. government, British officials will ask for the Biden administration to weigh in because some components of the missiles are made in the U.S."
But based on NSC spokesman John Kirby's words as of Friday afternoon, Washington's policy has not changed and no permission has yet been given to Ukraine.
So far, Ukraine forces have pummeled sights across Russia with drones, but unleashing missiles in the area of Moscow oblast for example would take the war to a whole new level.
President Putin has warned that Russia would make no distinction between Ukraine forces and their NATO suppliers at that point. It won't matter which pulled the trigger.
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