MOSCOW: Russia said the West was playing with fire by considering allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western missiles and warned the United States on Tuesday that World War III will not be limited to Europe.
On August 6, Ukraine attacked Russia's western Kursk region, seizing a chunk of territory in the largest foreign attack on Russia since World War II. President Vladimir Putin said Russia would respond with dignity to the attack.
Sergei Lavrov, who has served as Putin's foreign minister for more than 20 years, said the West was trying to escalate the war in Ukraine and was “asking for trouble” by considering Ukrainian requests to ease restrictions on the use of foreign-supplied weapons.
Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much wider war involving the world's largest nuclear powers, though he has said Russia does not want a conflict with the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
“We are confirming once again that playing with fire – and it's like little children playing with matches – is a very dangerous thing for adult uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
“The Americans unequivocally associate talk of World War III with something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov added that Russia was “clarifying” its nuclear doctrine.
Russia’s 2020 nuclear doctrine lays out when its president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly, in response to an attack using nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction or conventional weapons “when the very existence of the state is threatened.”
Russia's response
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this month that the assault on Russia's Kursk region proved that the Kremlin's threats of retaliation were a bluff.
Zelensky said Ukraine, due to restrictions imposed by its allies, cannot use the weapons at its disposal to attack some Russian military targets. He urged allies to be bolder in their decisions on how to help Kiev in the war.
Russia has claimed that Ukraine has used Western weapons, including British tanks and US missile systems, in Kursk. kyiv has confirmed the use of US HIMARS missiles to destroy bridges in Kursk.
Washington says it was not informed about Ukraine's plans before the surprise raid on Kursk. The United States has also said it was not involved in the operation.
Putin's foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said on Tuesday that Moscow does not believe Western claims that it had nothing to do with the Kursk attack. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said U.S. involvement was “an obvious fact.”
