Moscow would trigger a “contingency plan” outlined by President Vladimir Putin in the event that Ukraine receives permission to use Western-supplied long-range missiles for strikes deep inside Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned.
Putin earlier said that any such strikes would be treated by Moscow as a direct attack by the countries that provided the weapons.
The diplomat was commenting on an upcoming meeting of Kiev’s foreign arms donors, which Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has been touting as “historic.” Moscow does not follow statements on the issue as it already has a response prepared, the foreign minister said.
“As soon as this decision is taken [by the West to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles], if it is taken, we will learn that, and the contingency mentioned by Vladimir Putin will already be in action,” Lavrov told Russia’s Channel 1 broadcaster.
Power plants, bridges, defense factories, and American bases are among the first targets. That does not bode well for Scranton, PA, where an Army Ammunition Plant is located. Ukraine's Zelensky met with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro at that plant a week ago, where the two autographed artillery shells to be used to kill Russian troops.
Many people in the area say "The only thing Zelensky and Governor Shapiro did with that visit, was to make Scranton a target for Russia."
Putin has warned that any attack by Ukraine with Western-supplied long-range missiles would be treated by Moscow as being directly launched by NATO. He has suggested that Russia could arm enemies of the West with similar weapons in response.
Moscow is currently updating its nuclear doctrine to include an attack by a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear one to the conditions which could trigger a nuclear retaliation from Russia.
Kiev has been asking the US and its allies to lift a ban on strikes deep inside Russia with their long-range weapons for months, blaming its recent setbacks on the battlefield on Western reluctance.
Russian officials previously claimed that the principal decision to grant Ukraine its wish had already been made, and that Western nations were choosing a means to present it to the general public.
Zelensky had hoped that the ban would be lifted during his visit last month to the US, where he presented his ‘victory plan’ to President Joe Biden. According to local media, US officials are skeptical about the Ukrainian leader’s proposal, which they do not consider viable for defeating Russia.
Moscow, which describes the Ukraine conflict as a US-led proxy war against Russia, has pledged to achieve its goals by any means necessary as its national security depends on it. The West is willing “to fight to the last Ukrainian” to inflict damage on Russia, the Kremlin has argued.
NATO Openly Preparing for War with Russia
NATO is no longer hiding that it is gearing up for a potential military conflict with Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has said, pointing to this year's Steadfast Defender drills, the bloc's largest maneuvers since the end of the Cold War.
The US-led military bloc has been expanding eastward for decades, despite assurances given to the Soviet Union in the run-up to German reunification in 1990 that it would not do so. Russia has repeatedly described the expansion toward its borders as a threat to its security.
Speaking to RIA Novosti on Tuesday, Grushko said that “now NATO representatives have stopped hiding that they are preparing for a potential armed clash with Russia.”
“Regional defense plans have been approved, concrete tasks for all of the bloc’s military command structures have been formulated. Possible options for military action against Russia are being continuously worked out,” the diplomat added.
He cited the Steadfast Defender exercise that ran from January through late May, saying that “for the first time, the enemy was not a fictitious state, but Russia.”
While NATO did not specifically name Russia in its announcement of the drills, it called the exercises preparation for a conflict with a “near-peer” adversary. NATO’s main security document identifies Russia as the bloc’s largest threat.
The drills, which were conducted near Russia’s western border, featured some 90,000 troops from all 32 NATO member states.
According to Grushko, “military budgets are being pumped [with money] and [Western] economies are being militarized.”
The deputy foreign minister insisted that “it was not Russia, but the North-Atlantic alliance that took the path of confrontation,” by refusing to engage in dialogue with Moscow. He concluded that NATO bears responsibility for a “major European security crisis.”
On Saturday, Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, citing a confidential NATO planning document, reported that in preparation for a potential conflict with Russia, the military bloc is planning to dramatically increase the number of combat and air defense units.
Over the past few months, several NATO member states have claimed that Russia could be harboring plans to attack the bloc.
Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed as “nonsense” and “bulls**t” allegations that Moscow plans to attack NATO.
In September, the Russian leader warned, however, that should Ukraine’s Western backers allow Kiev to use their missiles to hit targets deep inside Russia, “it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of NATO countries, the US and European countries, in the conflict in Ukraine.”
"The Russian Federation demands from Kiev the withdrawal of all Ukrainian military personnel from the four partially occupied territories and Ukraine's renunciation of its intentions to join NATO," said Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in an interview with Newsweek.
Hal Turner Remarks
Any of you who have been distracted from the growing Russia-Ukraine conflict by the absurd Israel-Iran troubles, or who lost sight of the reality that the Russia-Ukraine situation is heading for direct nuclear confrontation between Russia and the West, are reminded: The conflict hasn't gone away, and NATO is now openly pushing for direct war, which will get a lot of US killed, here in the US.
