Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, spoke on July 3 about the “fatal consequences” that the United States may face if it does not heed Moscow’s warnings. The nuclear superpower has warned that, if US-supplied weapons are used by Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia, Russia will consider this an act of war by the United States.
Ryabkov’s remarks came when commenting on President Biden’s decision, made during the last week of May, to approve the use of American munitions and weapons systems to launch a retaliatory strike against targets inside Russia that had launched a recent wave of attacks on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
The Minister warned the leaders of the United States against what he called “miscalculations” which could bring “fatal consequences.” America, he said, is underestimating the seriousness of the Russian response to this move.
Comments made at the end of may by Russia President Vladimir Putin, which Ryabkov referenced, said that NATO members were “playing with fire” and running the risk of a much more perilous global conflict. It was the latest in a series of Moscow-issued warnings about further escalation in the matter of Ukraine.
American officials and public intellectuals, Ryabkov said, should spend less time playing video games and more time seriously weighing the words of their adversary. Putin, he said, has not been light on details or unclear about what he intends.
For Ukraine to use American or other Western weapons to strike inside Russia, the satellites, intelligence, and military capabilities of Western policies will have to be intimately involved in the targeting and attack process. Therefore, Putin said, should the West follow through with this latest change in policy, it would be directly involved in strikes against Russia.
Biden is not the only Western leader who has been moving toward allowing Ukraine to use weapons against targets within Russian territory. Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, said recently that if NATO helped Ukraine enforce its right to self-defense, that didn’t make NATO party to the conflict.
