Russian President says NATO long range strikes means declaration of war US Republican vice-presidential nominee reveals Trump’s proposals to end Ukrainian conflict
Removing restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons would directly involve the US and its allies in the conflict with Russia and would be met with an appropriate response, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned.
The West has sent Ukraine long-range missiles such as Storm Shadows and ATACMS, which Kiev has so far used against Crimea and Donbass. In the past several days, however, the US and UK have suggested they might allow these weapons to be used to strike targets deeper into internationally recognized Russian territory.
“We are not talking about allowing or prohibiting the Kiev regime from striking Russian territory,” Putin said on Thursday. “It is doing so already, with unmanned aerial vehicles and other means.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a plenary session of the 10th St. Petersburg International United Cultures Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia. © Sputnik / Kristina Kormilitsyna
Ukraine lacks the capability to use Western long-range systems, Putin added, noting that targeting for such strikes requires intelligence from NATO satellites, while firing solutions can “only be entered by NATO military personnel.”
“If this decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of NATO countries, the US and European countries, in the conflict in Ukraine,” the Russian president said. “Their direct participation, of course, significantly changes the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.”
With that in mind, Putin added, Russia will “make the appropriate decisions based on the threats facing us.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a concrete proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, has claimed.
Trump has repeatedly said he would stop the fighting “in 24 hours” if elected, most recently at Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ candidate to succeed President Joe Biden.
To end the war, “you need somebody that first of all people are terrified of,” Vance told former US Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Shawn Ryan, in a podcast interview on September 11. “You need to be worried that if Donald Trump – or God forbid, Kamala Harris – says something, that they actually mean it. But you believe it with Donald Trump, you don’t believe that with Kamala Harris. That’s deterrence.”
Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. © Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images
Asked about what a Trump peace proposal would look like, Vance outlined a scenario he considered probable. The current line of contact would become a demilitarized zone, “heavily fortified so Russia doesn’t invade again,” he told Ryan.
Later in the show, Vance said he was “sick of wasting American lives being the policeman of the world” and called the current US policy toward Russia “stupid.”
Vance has been on the record opposing further US funding of Ukraine’s war effort, accusing the White House of having “no viable plan” for Kiev’s victory. In a New York Times op-ed in April, he argued that winning would require more troops than Ukraine could possibly draft and more weapons than the US is able to produce.
Russia has declared Ukrainian neutrality as one of its main objectives. Meanwhile, Kiev has ruled out any talks not based on Vladimir Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’, a list of maximalist demands that Moscow has ridiculed as detached from reality.
Source X/RT/Youtube/AP