The Kremlin on Thursday warned of an escalation in Ukraine if the West gives pro-Western countries more weapons that could attack Russia.
“Potentially, this is very dangerous, it means that it will bring the conflict to a new level, which will certainly not bode from the point of view of global and pan-European security,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
More weapons go to Ukraine
The warning comes as major donors meet as Western nations consider sending more powerful weapons to Ukraine.
On Friday, the United States will gather its allies at the air base in Ramstein for a new round of discussions on supporting the Ukrainian military.
Peskov spoke after Moscow’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said Russia would retaliate if Ukraine uses Western-supplied weapons to target Russia or the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
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“It should be clear to everyone: no matter what American or NATO weapons supply the Zelensky regime, we will destroy it,” he said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“You cannot defeat Russia,” he said in comments released by the embassy.
He said U.S. rhetoric on Ukraine was “increasing war.”
By asserting that Crimea is part of Ukraine and saying that Kyiv can use US weapons to protect its territory, Washington is “actually pushing the Kyiv regime to carry out acts of terror in Russia,” Antonov said.
nuclear war
Separately, former president Dmitry Medvedev warned that the West’s continued support for Ukraine could lead to nuclear war.
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“A nuclear power that loses in a conventional war could lead to the outbreak of a nuclear war,” he wrote.
“Nuclear power is not missing the main conflict on which its fate depends.”
Peskov said Medvedev’s comments were in line with Russia’s nuclear doctrine.