Russia denounced US provision of new long-range missiles to Kyiv and pledged to strengthen security on its western borders, as missile strikes killed at least five civilians in Ukraine and deputies in Moscow revoked their ratification of a ban on nuclear testing.
The Kremlin said Washington had made “another mistake” by suppling powerful ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, a day after Kyiv said it had used them for the first time to destroy military helicopters, an air defence system and other equipment at two airbases in Russian-occupied territory. Moscow did not comment directly on the alleged strikes.
“Firstly, of course this causes harm and creates an additional threat. Secondly, we, of course, will be able to repel these attacks,” Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. “What is most important is that this is fundamentally incapable of changing the situation on the front line. That is impossible.”
Moscow launches missile and drone strikes almost every night on civilian infrastructure as well as military targets
Mr Putin said provision of ATACMS and other weapons by the West could “bring nothing good for Ukraine” and would only “prolong its agony”.
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“A mistake on a larger scale ... is that the United States is becoming more and more personally drawn into this conflict. And let no one say that they have nothing to do with this. We believe they do,” he added.
Russia holds less than a fifth of Ukrainian territory – much of it seized in 2014 rather than after Mr Putin’s full invasion in February 2022 – and as Moscow’s forces have struggled to make headway, the Kremlin and its state media outlets have reframed the war as a de facto battle in Ukraine for Russia’s survival against a hostile West.
“The United States and its allies are providing Ukraine with armoured vehicles and air defence systems ... The supply of F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv is becoming a reality as they are expected to arrive [in Ukraine] next year,” said Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
“We are taking appropriate measures to respond to these threats, strengthening our western borders,” he added, claiming that the West had “unleashed a hybrid war against Russia in the military, political, legal, economic and humanitarian fields”.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and injured in Russia’s invasion, and millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes. Moscow launches missile and drone strikes almost every night on civilian infrastructure as well as military targets.
At least five people were killed on Wednesday when Russian missiles struck houses in the eastern regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk. Russia said it shot down 28 Ukrainian attack drones over two western regions and occupied Crimea.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, known as the State Duma, voted unanimously to cancel its ratification in 2000 of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, in a Kremlin-backed move to mirror the US failure to ratify a pact that Moscow and Washington signed in 1996.
Moscow said the revocation is not part of plans to restart nuclear testing, and insisted it would only do so in response to a US resumption.
