Peskov: Moscow will respond accordingly if the West allows Kyiv to strike deep into Russia
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he had discussed permission to use long-range missiles for strikes deep into Russian territory with Kiev and would report on the results of the talks to Biden. Earlier, he promised that Washington and London would “consider the request” to use long-range weapons. Moscow promised to respond accordingly if the West allows Kyiv to strike deep into Russian territory. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized that the very holding of the SVO is already a response to the actions of opponents.
The special military operation is already a response to possible strikes deep into Russian territory, said Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
“Answer [на решение США] “It will be appropriate,” the Kremlin spokesman responded to the question of what Moscow’s response would be if Washington allowed Kyiv to launch long-range weapons strikes on Russian cities.
“There is no need to expect any answers everywhere. A special military operation is the answer to all these actions. Every such decision made by the collective West is further confirmation of the justification and necessity of a special military operation,” Peskov added.
He also noted that Western countries have probably already decided to approve Kyiv’s request, but are trying not to show their own involvement in the conflict.
“Most likely, of course, all these decisions have already been made. This can be assumed with a high degree of probability. At the moment, the media is simply conducting such an information campaign to formalize the decision that has already been made. Attempts to distance themselves from the involvement of the United States and European states in this conflict are continuing,” the Kremlin representative concluded.
“Nuclear escalation”
Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Academic Director of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics at the Higher School of Economics, political scientist Sergei Karaganov believes that Moscow has the right to respond with nuclear weapons to strikes on Russian territory. In his opinion, the concept of “nuclear escalation” should be introduced into the nuclear doctrine, when a country takes preliminary steps that would “convince a hypothetical or real adversary” of the seriousness of the opponent’s intentions.
“The main goal of the doctrine should be to ensure that all current and future adversaries are confident that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons,” Karaganov noted in an interview with Kommersant.
The need to go for a “nuclear escalation” is Moscow’s duty not only to the Russians who are now dying on the front lines and even now in peaceful cities, but also to the entire world, he believes.
“If we do not reactivate nuclear deterrence, the world will fall into a series of wars that will inevitably become nuclear in nature and end in a third world war,” the political scientist is sure.
Splits in Biden administration
Earlier, US President Joe Biden told reporters that Washington was considering allowing Kyiv to use long-range weapons supplied to it to strike deep into Russian territory. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US and UK would “consider a request” from Kyiv to use Western long-range weapons to strike targets deep into Russia. A final decision on this issue should be made after a meeting between the US President and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on September 13.
On the evening of September 11, Blinken discussed permission to use long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory with the leadership of Ukraine and promised to report on the results of the talks to Biden.
Western allies have begun discussing whether to allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons after Iran transferred a batch of its Fath-360 missiles to Russia despite months of warnings from the United States not to do so, Blinken said earlier.
As the Financial Times writes, there is a split in the US presidential administration: some are in favor of allowing Kyiv to strike deep into Russian territory with American weapons, while others are against it and fear escalation. According to the publication, the Pentagon has come out against the use of long-range weapons by the Ukrainian Armed Forces for such strikes.
“While the US State Department has been more receptive to arguments from Ukraine and many of its Western allies, the Pentagon and the US intelligence community have warned against using long-range weapons in the Russian rear,” the publication says.
Ukraine's allies, including Poland, are also in no hurry to speak out in favor of strikes deep into the Russian Federation. Thus, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Poland, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, noted that NATO as a whole, and not individual countries, can allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons to strike at Russian territory.
“President [Владимир] Zelensky raises this issue in every speech, but this should be the response of all of NATO, not just one country,” Kosinyak-Kamysh said.
