Russia warns letting Ukraine use long-range Western missiles could start WWIII
(Originally published Aug. 28 in “What in the World“) Russia warned that letting Ukraine use long-range American missiles to hit Russian airbases risks starting World War III.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the warning while talking to reporters in Moscow: “We are now confirming once again that playing with fire—and they are like small children playing with matches—is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country.”
Ukraine has been lobbying the White House to lift its restriction on using long-range Atacm missiles to hit targets inside Russia, particularly its airfields. It also wants U.S. President Joe Biden to let it use its new Danish and Dutch F-16s to conduct air strikes inside Russia.
Biden has methodically relented on most of Kyiv’s demands, but fears that having “Made in USA” rain death down on Russian civilians may provide Russian President Vladimir Putin the pretext he needs to justify going nuclear in Ukraine, or even against Europe.
And because they contain American components, the U.S. also stands in the way of France and the U.K. letting Ukraine use Storm Shadow cruise missiles to hit those air fields.
Lavrov suggested World War III wouldn’t be confined to Europe. “Americans unequivocally associate conversations about Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively.”
Zelensky says Putin’s relatively tepid reaction to the incursion means Biden’s fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin might respond with a nuclear strike are unjustified. White House officials argue that the Atacms wouldn’t do Zelensky much good: thanks in part to the delay in approving their use, Moscow has had time to move many of its aircraft out of range. To counter that, Ukrainian officials are even drawing up a list of targets they’d like to use the Atacms to strike.
Biden has already provided Zelensky with a long list of armaments he once feared giving Ukraine might set off World War III: first Stingers, then howitzers, then Himars rocket launchers, then Patriot missiles, then Abrams battle tanks , then F-16s. Zelensky said yesterday that Ukraine’s new F-16s had helped shoot down some of the more than 100 missiles Russia fired into the country Monday. The barrage, one of the largest of the war, continued Tuesday.