Kremlin says any decision to use long-range missiles against Russia would lead to a ‘rise in tension’
The Kremlin said on Monday that if the US allowed Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike far into Russia then it would lead to a rise in tension and deepen the involvement of the US in the conflict.
Speaking at his regular daily press briefing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that there was no change in position from what Vladimir Putin had said in September. The Russian president had said he would consider strikes by US-made weapons on Russian soil as the direct involvement of Nato in the conflict.
In response to a question from Tass, Peskov said Russia was only aware of the apparent decision by the Joe Biden administration from reporting in western media.
Asked about recent overtures towards peace by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Peskov said that any so-called “freezing” of the conflict along the existing frontline was unacceptable for the Russian Federation.
Key events
In this video report, Guardian video producer Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how Russia is using hybrid warfare alongside boosting its arms industry to outpace Nato, and what this means for the war in Ukraine:
Scholz’s call with Putin was a ‘strategic mistake’, Estonian foreign minister says
German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call with Vladimir Putin was a “strategic mistake” that weakened European unity in the face of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels earlier.
As my colleagues Pjotr Sauer and Kate Connolly write in this report, Scholz urged the Russian president to withdraw troops from Ukraine and negotiate with Kyiv to achieve a just and lasting peace, in the first call between a major western leader and Putin since December 2022.
The one-hour phone call came after Putin reportedly spoke with the US president-elect, Donald Trump, whose incoming administration has vowed to push for a swift end to the war in Ukraine.
Tsahkna said the call had damaged Western efforts to isolate Putin. “It was a strategic mistake,” he told Reuters. “We have had a principle agreed that we keep Putin in isolation.”
Tsahkna said that position should be maintained until Putin showed a willingness to take part in meaningful negotiations and withdraw his troops from Ukraine.
But currently Putin was doing the opposite, Tsahkna said, pointing out that Russia mounted one of its most severe attacks on Ukraine in months in the days after Scholz’s call. “It just weakened our unity and our positions,” Tsahkna said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also criticised Scholz’s call, saying it was “exactly what Putin has long sought” and could open a “Pandora’s Box” of calls that would further undermine efforts to isolate him.
We mentioned in an earlier post that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been visiting the eastern frontline town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. Here is a little more on the strategic significance of the town:
Pokrovsk lies at an intersection of roads and a railway that make it an important logistics point for the military and for civilians. Its coal mine is the only one in Ukraine that produces coking coal vital for the national steel industry.
The Ukrainian military said its forces had repelled more than 30 Russian attacks near Pokrovsk in just the past day.
In a battlefield update on Russia’s attempt to seize Pokrovsk, the Institute for the Study of War wrote yesterday:
Russian forces have not taken Pokrovsk after eight months of grinding but consistent advances in western Donetsk oblast.
Ukrainian defensive operations, based on the integration of successful Ukrainian drone innovators and operators with ground forces combined with constraints on Russia’s strategic and operational-level manpower and materiel reserves, have forced the Russian military command to abandon its original campaign design of a frontal assault on Pokrovsk.
The Russian military command is currently attempting to envelop Pokrovsk from the southwest via Selydove and to even out the frontline west of Kurakhove and north of Vuhledar.
As fears of escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continue to mount, the UK and EU have taken action against Iran for aiding Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
The UK said Iran’s national airliner Iran Air will be subject to an asset freeze in response to the country’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, while shipping carrier the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines has been sanctioned for its role in transporting Iranian military supplies. The Russian cargo ship Port Olya-3 has been also sanctioned for carrying missiles from Iran to Russia.
Likewise, the EU has widened its sanctions, adding the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its director Mohammad Reza Khiabani to its sanctions list.
The fresh sanctions by the EU are against vessels and ports used for transporting Iranian-made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), missiles and related technologies and components. They include prohibiting any transaction with ports and locks owned, operated or controlled by the sanctioned individuals and entities.
Reuters reports that Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico has come out strongly against any decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range weapons on targets inside Russia.
He has described it as an “unprecedented escalation of tensions”, and said the clear aim of the reported move by Joe Biden’s administration was to thwart or delay peace talks. He said he was in strong disagreement with it.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chair of the State Duma in Russia, has said that the US allowing use of longer-range weapons by Ukraine would not change the situation on the battlefield, but it would serve to finally destroy Russia-US relations, Tass reports.
There is currently a ballistic missiles warning in effect in Ukraine’s Sumy region in the north-east of the country. The city of Sumy was struck overnight in an attack which killed at least eleven people. One of the victims of that attack has been named by local Ukrainian media as 9-year-old Ilya Doroshenko.
Hungary has sounded a dissenting note from broad European support of the US decision to allow Ukraine to utilise longer range weapons to strike inside Russia.
Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto has, Reuters reports, described it as “astonishingly dangerous” to allow Nato-supplied weapons to be used for long-range strikes.
Earlier this year Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán attracted criticism from EU and Nato allies after he travelled to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin in person in July.
The European Parliament described the visit as a “blatant violation of the EU’s Treaties and common foreign policy.”
We have been reporting today that Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles has been met with ominous warnings from Moscow – but has been cautiously welcomed by some western allies.
Margus Tsahkna, the foreign minister of Estonia which is another Baltic country that fears a military threat from Russia, said easing restrictions on Ukraine was “a good thing.”
“We have been saying that from the beginning — that no restrictions must be put on the military support,” he said at a meeting of senior EU diplomats in Brussels. “And we need to understand that situation is more serious (than) it was even maybe like a couple of months ago.”
Estonia and the other Baltic States have increased their military spending to over 2% of the value of their economies after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and Nato allies have raised their presence in those countries.
Death toll from Russian strike on Odesa rises to 10, with 43 people reported injured
In an earlier post, we reported that officials had said 8 people had been killed and 18 injured in a Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine’s Black Sea port city.
Ukraine’s state emergency services now says that 10 people were killed in the attack and that 43 people were injured.
“According to preliminary information, 10 people were killed and 43 others were wounded, including four children,” the agency said on Telegram. The fatalities included at least seven police officers and a medic, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile, which was downed by air defences.
“Unfortunately, the downed missile fell into the residential sector of the city’s Prymorskyi district,” the air force wrote in a post on Telegram.
US officials say Joe Biden, the US president, has authorised the first use of American-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia.
The first strikes using Army Tactical Missile Systems (Atacms) rockets could come within days. My colleague Oliver Holmes has written this explainer on the capabilities of Atacms missiles and why they are so important to Ukraine:
Here is an extract from the piece:
Ukraine will now be able to strike targets inside Kursk with the missiles, where Kyiv holds more than 1,000 sq km of territory. The Atacms could target Russian weapons and ammunition depots, supply lines, and military bases, which would give relief to Ukrainian troops on the frontlines.
With Trump’s inauguration in January, the move might be a way to strengthen Ukraine’s hand militarily before it is forced into peace talks. It may also have a psychological impact, raising morale in Ukraine during a tough period.
Erdoğan to present Ukraine peace plan at G20 meeting – reports
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is to present a peace plan for Ukraine at the G20 summit, according to reports by Bloomberg.
The Turkish president’s plan reportedly consists of:
-
freezing the frontline as it is
-
Ukraine agreeing not to join Nato for at least ten years
-
supplying Ukraine with weapons to provide for its defence
-
placing international peacekeepers in a demilitarised buffer zone in the Donbas
Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports that Erdoğan was suggesting a freeze of the current tactical situation as a condition that would be “unacceptable” to the Russian Federation.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that he visited the eastern frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region.
A video posted by Zelenskyy showed him visiting troops defending the town from Russian forces, who are situated about 8km (5 miles) away.
In a message accompanying the video, Zelenskyy described the front there as “intense”, adding “Only thanks to the strength of the soldiers, the east is not completely occupied by Russia. The enemy receives a daily response. Thanks to the soldiers for their courage.”
