Moscow, Sep 12 (EFE).- The West has already allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with long-range missiles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.
«We have no doubt that a decision has already been made to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons to attack Russian territory,» Lavrov said during a roundtable with foreign diplomatic mission heads, according to RIA Novosti.
Lavrov dismissed the recent visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy to Kyiv as a «staged» event.
He suggested that the top diplomats had discussed granting Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles during their talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
«Now they are trying to present it publicly in a more polished and elegant way,» Lavrov remarked.
The Russian foreign minister also accused Ukraine of dramatically increasing attacks on civilian targets, claiming NATO was supplying Kyiv with intelligence from its satellites to «coordinate strikes inside Russian territory.»
He alleged that these strikes targeted not only energy and industrial infrastructure but also homes, schools, and hospitals.
«Western military specialists are literally guiding high-precision attacks on exclusively civilian targets,» Lavrov said.
Lavrov defended Russia’s military actions, saying they only targeted civilian infrastructure directly linked to Ukraine’s military operations.
During their visit to Kyiv, both Blinken and Lammy emphasized that the issue of allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles against Russian territory would be discussed by their respective leaders during a meeting in Washington on Friday.
They also accused Russia of escalating the conflict in recent days with large-scale bombings and the acquisition of Iranian ballistic missiles.
«It is (Russian President Vladimir) Putin who has escalated the situation by introducing Iranian ballistic missiles,» Lammy said.
Blinken hinted that the red line on long-range missiles could soon be crossed, just as previous hesitations regarding military aid—like the delivery of long-range missiles or F-16 fighter jets—had been overcome.
British media reported that London had already approved Kyiv’s use of long-range missiles, while Washington had yet to make a final decision. EFE
mos-ssk
