Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday statements by NATO members this week regarding the possible use of long-range weapons systems in Ukraine represent a “dangerous escalation.”
During a joint news conference Thursday with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the United States to lift its restrictions on the use of U.S.-supplied weapons so Ukraine can fire on targets deep within Russia.
Currently, the U.S. limits Ukraine to only returning fire on targets just inside the Russian border wherever it is coming under attack.
At the news conference, Zelenskyy said, “If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations.” Zelenskyy’s top aide Andriy Yermak made the same request earlier in the day.
Speaking with reporters in a telephone briefing Friday, Peskov said Russia watched the NATO summit in Washington carefully, and he called the issue “highly provocative.”
“We see statements by representatives of some capitals, London and so on, who do not see any restrictions in this regard,” Peskov said. “And we see countries that are trying to keep some kind of the balance and say that they are against such easing of the terms for the use of long-range missiles.”
Peskov claimed long-range missiles already were being used to target areas such as Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — parts of eastern Ukraine that he claimed are Russian territories.
“As for increasing this firing range,” he said, “this is pure provocation, a new, very dangerous escalation of tension.”
Comments about Biden
On the subject of U.S. President Joe Biden and the attention being paid to his age and verbal slips, Peskov said that was an internal U.S. political issue and the concern of the U.S. voter, not Russia.
But the Kremlin spokesman did say Russia considered comments made by Biden about Russian President Vladimir Putin to be “absolutely unacceptable.” He said it was “impermissible for a head of state to speak so disrespectfully of another head of state.”
Peskov did not specify which statements he found so objectionable, although Biden did refer to Putin as “a murderous madman.”
UN resolution
Meanwhile, the U.N. General Assembly late Thursday adopted a resolution demanding Russia “urgently withdraw” its military and other unauthorized personnel from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and “immediately return” the plant to full Ukrainian control — to ensure its safety and security.”
The 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution with 99 votes in favor, nine against and 60 abstentions.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe, was captured by Russia shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The plant is shut down but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.
New military aid
Also Thursday, Biden announced significant new military aid at the NATO summit. The president made the announcement about the $225 million package during a meeting with Zelenskyy.
Among the items included are a Patriot missile battery; munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS; Stinger anti-aircraft missiles; ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS; and 155-millimeter and 105-millimeter artillery rounds.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
