Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned on Thursday that if the US delivers sophisticated air defence systems to Ukraine, those systems and any crews that accompany them would be a legitimate target for the Russian military, a blunt threat that was quickly rejected by Washington.
The exchange of statements reflected rising Russia-US tensions amid the tenth month of fighting in Ukraine.
According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the United States has effectively become a party to the conflict by supplying Ukraine with weapons and training its troops. She added that if reports about US intentions to provide Kyiv with Patriot surface-to-air missile system prove true, it would become another provocative move by the US and broaden its involvement in the hostilities, entailing possible consequences.
Any weapons systems supplied to Ukraine, including the Patriot and the personnel who service them, have been and will continue to be legitimate priority targets for the Russian armed forces, according to Zakharova.
Asked about the Russian warning, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Gen Pat Ryder responded that the US would not allow Russia’s comments to dictate the security assistance that we provide to Ukraine.
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I find it ironic and telling that officials from a country that brutally attacked its neighbour in an illegal and unprovoked invasion, through a campaign that is deliberately targeting and killing innocent civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, would choose words like provocative’ to describe defensive systems designed to save lives and protect civilians, Ryder said.
Officials in the United States said on Tuesday that they were on the verge of approving the deployment of a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, finally agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more powerful weapons to shoot down incoming Russian missiles that have crippled much of the country’s vital infrastructure.
Operating and maintaining a Patriot battery requires up to 90 troops and the US has been hesitant to provide the complex system for months because sending American forces into Ukraine to run the systems is a nonstarter for President Joe Biden’s administration.
Even without the presence of US service members to train Ukrainians on how to use the system, there are concerns that the deployment of the missiles will provoke Russia or that a fired projectile will hit inside Russia, escalating the conflict.
Russia has repeatedly claimed that its forces struck Western-supplied weapons in Ukraine, but those claims have never been independently verified.
So far, Ukraine has reacted cautiously to the reports.
Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, told reporters on Thursday in Kyiv that the delivery of such weaponry remains sensitive not only for Ukraine but for our partners and that only Zelenskyy or Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov would make any official announcement on such an agreement.
The White House and Pentagon have repeatedly said that providing Ukraine with additional air defences is a top priority and Patriot missiles have been considered for some time.
According to officials, as winter approached and Russia’s bombardment of civilian infrastructure increased, the idea became more urgent.
Until now, the United States and its NATO allies have provided Ukraine with short- and medium-range air defence systems capable of intercepting Russian aircraft and drones but not ballistic and cruise missiles.
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