- Russian leaders threaten nukes, destruction of Kyiv if Ukraine uses long-range missiles deeper inside their borders
Russian officials threatened Western nations with an unchecked escalation of war — including the potential use of nuclear weapons — and the all-out destruction of Kyiv, if Ukraine gets its allies’ permission to use long-range missiles to strike further into Russia.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov claimed that Western leaders had already decided whether to allow Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles and had informed Kyiv — forcing Moscow to respond with its own actions.
“The decision has been made, the carte blanche and all indulgences have been given [to Kyiv], so we are ready for everything,” Ryabkov said, state-owned RIA news agency reported.
“And we will react in a way that will not be pretty.”
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow already had the grounds to unleash its nuclear weapons on Ukraine as a result of its surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region last month.
But Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said that Moscow could also use some of its new, non-nuclear arsenals to wipe Kyiv off the map.
“And that would be it. A giant, gray, melted spot instead of ‘the mother of Russian cities,’” he wrote on Telegram.
The ominous threats came amid discussions between United States and Britain on whether to relax restrictions surrounding the use of Western supplied weapons.
At a foreign policy summit Friday in Washington, President Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed potentially giving Ukraine the green light to fire long-range Storm Shadow missiles supplied by Britain at targets deep in Russian territory.
The leaders, however, did not reach a decision on any policy changes regarding the weapons, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists are vital to achieving victory in the ongoing war with Russia.
On Saturday, Ukraine renewed its push for Western leaders to relax restrictions on the missile’s use.
“Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields, and military bases inside the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said. “Permission to strike deep into Russia will speed up the solution.”
