Moscow reacts to Washington’s secret delivery of ATACMS missiles to Kiev

The long-range ATACMS missiles that the US has supplied to Ukraine are “extremely dangerous weapons,” but they will not help Kiev turn the tide of the conflict against Moscow, Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said.

On Wednesday, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that back in February, US President Joe Biden had ordered the provision of Kiev with a “significant” number of ATACMS missiles for use inside Ukraine, which commenced the following month. The ATACMS, which have a range of 300km, “were transferred quietly to Ukraine in order to maintain operational security,” Pentagon spokesman Major Charlie Dietz stressed.

The delivery of long-range missiles to Kiev is “impossible to justify,” Antonov said in a post on Telegram on Thursday. The move by Washington “increases the threat to the security of Crimea, including Sevastopol, the new Russian regions [the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions] and other Russian cities,” he added.

The assurances by the US officials that the long-range missiles will not be used against Russian territory are “particularly cynical,” the ambassador stressed. “How can we ignore the numerous terrorist attacks by Kiev’s criminals? Deadly strikes on hospitals, schools, kindergartens, bridges and even their own servicemen?”

Antonov reminded that the Russian forces have already shot down mid-range ATACMS missiles, which Ukraine had received last September. The same will happen with their long-range counterparts, he assured, adding that “neither these missiles nor other weapons can help defeat Russia.”

“Aren’t local politicians [in the US] afraid of drowning in the quagmire of conflict? Washington will not be able to get out of the horrible swamp that has absorbed the blood of ordinary soldiers,” the ambassador warned.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed to the fact that Washington’s acknowledgement of the delivery of long-range ATACMS to Ukraine comes amid attempts by Kiev and its Western backers to “deceive the international community into some kind of conference on the ‘Zelensky formula’.”

“Washington’s plan is sickeningly simple: drag everyone into a pointless meeting under the pretext of ‘peaceful intentions’, while at the same time boosting [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s terrorist potential,” she said on Telegram.

Switzerland said earlier this month that it is going to host a peace conference on Ukraine in June, without Russia’s participation.

READ MORE: Pentagon’s ‘new’ Ukraine aid package was spent months ago – Politico

Zelensky’s plan for ending the conflict, which he has been promoting since 2022, calls for Russia to withdraw from all territory held by Ukraine prior to 2014, for Moscow to pay reparations, and for the formation of a war crimes tribunal. Russia instantly rejected the plan as “unrealistic” and a sign of Ukraine’s unwillingness to look for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

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