MOSCOW: Russia will consider the United States and its allies to be parties to the Ukraine war and Moscow will use more powerful weapons if the West allows Ukraine to use long-range weapons for strikes deep into Russia, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday.
“Washington and other European states are becoming parties to the war in Ukraine,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, said on Telegram.
Volodin said that the United States, Germany, France, and Britain were becoming parties to the conflict.
“All this will lead to the fact that our country will be forced to respond using more powerful and destructive weapons to protect its citizens,” Volodin said.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that his administration was “working that out now” when asked if the US would lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long range weapons in the war.
Sources said last week that the US was close to an agreement to give Ukraine such weapons, but that Kyiv would need to wait several months as the US works through technical issues ahead of any shipment.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran had supplied Russia with ballistic missiles in what he said was a “dramatic escalation.” Tehran said the claims were “ugly propaganda.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pleading for Western countries to supply longer-range missiles and to lift restrictions on using them to hit targets such as military airfields inside Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that he could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the United States and its European allies if they allowed Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with long-range Western weapons.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces.
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 with thousands of troops, triggering the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
Putin casts the conflict in Ukraine as part of an existential battle with a declining and decadent West which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine.
The West and Ukraine describe the invasion as an imperial-style land grab by Putin and has vowed to defeat Russia on the battlefield.
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Russian lawmaker warns the West over supplies of long-range missiles to Ukraine
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Russian lawmaker warns the West over supplies of long-range missiles to Ukraine
- Washington and other European states are becoming parties to the war in Ukraine – Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s Duma
- Sources said last week that the US was close to an agreement to give Ukraine of long range weapons
US kills 8 in eastern Pacific strikes on alleged drug boats
- Strikes on three alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed eight people on Monday, according to the US military
WASHINGTON: Strikes on three alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed eight people on Monday, according to the US military, the latest in a controversial campaign that has killed dozens of people.
Since early September, the US military under Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has targeted alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, destroying at least 26 vessels and killing at least 95 people.
The US Southern Command announced the latest three strikes on X, saying the eight men killed had been involved in drug trafficking, without providing evidence.
The post included video footage of three separate boats floating in water before they are each hit by strikes.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” it said.
The strikes killed three men in the first vessel, two in the second and another three in the third, the US Southern Command added.
The strikes have drawn intense scrutiny from human rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers, with the United Nations’s human rights chief warning last month they could violate international law.
The US administration has labeled those killed as “unlawful combatants” and said it can legally engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.
US authorities have not provided specific evidence that the boats it has targeted were ferrying drugs.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that there would be an all-senators briefing Tuesday on the “administration’s rogue and reckless actions in the Caribbean,” with Hegseth and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“The American people deserve oversight. We intend to deliver it,” the senior Democratic party lawmaker said in an X post published before the latest strike announcement by the US military.
- Concern over strikes -
The strikes have been accompanied by a massive US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier and a slew of other warships.
US President Donald Trump has insisted the goal is combating narco-trafficking, while Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he suspects it is a pretext for leadership change in Caracas.
The admiral leading US forces in the Caribbean, Alvin Holsey, stepped down last week, just a year into his tenure and after reportedly expressing concerns about the boat strikes.
Neither he nor Hegseth have publicly provided a reason for his early departure.
“We must always be there for like-minded partners, like-minded nations who share our values — democracy, rule of law and human rights,” Holsey said in a ceremony to mark him relinquishing command.
During one of the first strikes in September, survivors of an initial attack on a boat were killed in a second US strike on the vessel, generating accusations of a possible war crime since media reported details of the incident in November.
Hegseth has maintained he did not order a second strike, instead attributing it to the operational commander Admiral Frank Bradley.
Even before news of the double-strike broke, UN rights chief Volker Turk had urged Washington to investigate the legality of the campaign and warned of “strong indications” of “extrajudicial killings.”
Since early September, the US military under Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has targeted alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, destroying at least 26 vessels and killing at least 95 people.
The US Southern Command announced the latest three strikes on X, saying the eight men killed had been involved in drug trafficking, without providing evidence.
The post included video footage of three separate boats floating in water before they are each hit by strikes.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” it said.
The strikes killed three men in the first vessel, two in the second and another three in the third, the US Southern Command added.
The strikes have drawn intense scrutiny from human rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers, with the United Nations’s human rights chief warning last month they could violate international law.
The US administration has labeled those killed as “unlawful combatants” and said it can legally engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.
US authorities have not provided specific evidence that the boats it has targeted were ferrying drugs.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that there would be an all-senators briefing Tuesday on the “administration’s rogue and reckless actions in the Caribbean,” with Hegseth and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“The American people deserve oversight. We intend to deliver it,” the senior Democratic party lawmaker said in an X post published before the latest strike announcement by the US military.
- Concern over strikes -
The strikes have been accompanied by a massive US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier and a slew of other warships.
US President Donald Trump has insisted the goal is combating narco-trafficking, while Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he suspects it is a pretext for leadership change in Caracas.
The admiral leading US forces in the Caribbean, Alvin Holsey, stepped down last week, just a year into his tenure and after reportedly expressing concerns about the boat strikes.
Neither he nor Hegseth have publicly provided a reason for his early departure.
“We must always be there for like-minded partners, like-minded nations who share our values — democracy, rule of law and human rights,” Holsey said in a ceremony to mark him relinquishing command.
During one of the first strikes in September, survivors of an initial attack on a boat were killed in a second US strike on the vessel, generating accusations of a possible war crime since media reported details of the incident in November.
Hegseth has maintained he did not order a second strike, instead attributing it to the operational commander Admiral Frank Bradley.
Even before news of the double-strike broke, UN rights chief Volker Turk had urged Washington to investigate the legality of the campaign and warned of “strong indications” of “extrajudicial killings.”
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