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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia could destroy Kyiv in response to the use of Western long-range missiles by Ukraine.
Mr Medvedev said Moscow already had formal grounds to use nuclear weapons since Ukraine‘s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but could instead use some new weapon technologies to reduce Kyiv to “a giant melted spot” when its patience runs out.
It comes as UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer met with US president Joe Biden at the White House where they discussed the conflict. There was no announcement on the use of British and US long-range missiles by Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said it is “difficult to repeatedly hear” Western allies say they are working on a decision to lift limits on the use of long-range weapons as Vladimir Putin “burns down our cities and villages”.
Mr Zelensky has pleaded with allies for months to allow his military to fire long-range US ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles at Russian targets used to launch devastating daily attacks on Ukraine.
Putin warned Nato will be directly at war with Moscow if the US and UK allow Kyiv to use the weapons.
Key Points
- Starmer-Biden talks end with no decision on missiles hitting Russia
- Zelensky calls US and UK failure to reach long-range missiles decision 'difficult to hear'
- UK says Russian accusations against British diplomats are ‘completely baseless’
- Russia expels six British diplomats it accuses of spying and sabotage
Russia's Medvedev threatens to turn Kyiv into 'giant melted spot'
Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia could destroy Ukraine‘s capital Kyiv with non-nuclear weapons in response to the use of Western long-range missiles by Ukraine.
Medvedev said Moscow already had formal grounds to use nuclear weapons since Ukraine‘s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but could instead use some of its new weapon technologies to reduce Kyiv to “a giant melted spot” when its patience runs out.
“Holy s**t! It’s impossible, but it happened,” he wrote in English on the Telegram messaging app.
Jabed Ahmed14 September 2024 10:51 1726305190Stoltenberg says NATO could have done more to prevent Ukraine war
NATO could have done more to arm Ukraine to try to prevent Russia’s invasion in 2022, the outgoing head of the Western military alliance has said.
“Now we provide military stuff to a war - then we could have provided military stuff to prevent the war,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly newspaper FAS.
Stoltenberg pointed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s reluctance to provide weapons that Kyiv had asked for before Russia’s full-scale invasion because of fears that tensions with Russia would escalate.
“To end this war there will have to be again dialogue with Russia at a certain stage. But it has to be based on Ukrainian strength,” he added.
Jabed Ahmed14 September 2024 10:13 1726302370Watch: Biden says ‘I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin’ as Starmer arrives for talks
Russia has lost 632,630 troops since the beginning of its war in Ukraine, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
This number includes 1,210 Russian force casualties over the past day.
Former defence secretary says he is ‘disappointed’ with talks between Biden and Starmer
Former British defence secretary Ben Wallace has said he is “dissapointed” by the “tug of war” discussions between Joe Biden and Keir Starmer about Ukraine.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, he said: “I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again another tug of war around another capability. It goes on and on. It started with anti-tank missiles and anti-air missiles, then tanks.”
“All of that tug of war favours Russia,” he added.
“Ultimately, the people who are suffering are those Ukrainians, of all ages, fighting for their freedom, and in fact, Europe’s freedom.”
Jabed Ahmed14 September 2024 08:39 1726297762Watch: Biden scolds journalist over question about Putin’s threat of war
Full report: Biden and Starmer unite against Putin nuclear threat but delay crucial decision on missiles
Read the full report from David Maddox, Andy Gregory and Andrew Feinberg:
Biden and Starmer unite against Putin nuclear threat but delay decision on missiles
Zelensky applies more pressure on West to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles on targets in Russia
Jabed Ahmed14 September 2024 07:43 1726294384Putin's options for Ukraine missiles response include nuclear test, experts say
Vladimir Putin’s options to retaliate if the West lets Ukraine use its long-range missiles to strike Russia could include striking British military assets near Russia or, in extremis, conducting a nuclear test to show intent, experts have said.
As East-West tensions over Ukraine enter a new and dangerous phase, British prime minister Keir Starmer and US president Joe Biden met in Washington to discuss whether to allow Kyiv to use long-range US ATACMS or British Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia.
Ulrich Kuehn, an arms expert at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg, told Reuters he did not rule out Vladimir Putin choosing to send some kind of nuclear message - for example testing a nuclear weapon in an effort to cow the West.
“This would be a dramatic escalation of the conflict,” he said in an interview. “Because the point is, what kind of arrows has Mr Putin then left to shoot if the West then still continues, apart from actual nuclear use?”
Russia has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the fall of the Soviet Union, and a nuclear explosion would signal the start of a more dangerous era, Mr Kuehn said, cautioning that Putin may feel he is seen as weak in his responses to increasing NATO support for Ukraine.
“Nuclear testing would be new. I would not exclude that, and it would be in line with Russia shattering a number of international security arrangements that it has signed up to over the decades during the last couple of years,” he said.
Gerhard Mangott, a security specialist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said in an interview he also thought it was possible, though in his view not likely, that Russia’s response could include some form of nuclear signal.
“The Russians could conduct a nuclear test. They have made all the preparations needed. They could explode a tactical nuclear weapon somewhere in the east of the country just to demonstrate that (they) mean it when they say we will eventually resort to nuclear weapons.”
Shweta Sharma14 September 2024 07:13 1726293600Putin has laid out many red lines about Ukraine – are long-range missiles targeting Russia the last one?
The West cannot back down from supportng Ukraine with long-range missiles to use on targets deep inside Russia despite Vladimir Putin’s fresh threats of possible war with Nato, Kremlin critics, military leaders and Ukrainian officials have toldThe Independent.
The Russian president would regret a direct confrontation with the alliance, Kremlin critics said, but senior military figures have warned that due to the unpredictable nature of the Russian president and the “immense risks” involved, his threats “can’t be dismissed out of hand”.
With prime minister Keir Starmer in Washington to meet Presiddent Biden, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said it is “difficult to repeatedly hear” Western allies say they are “working on” a decision permit the use of long-range missiles into Russia while “Putin continues to burn down our cities and villages”.
Read the full article here:
Starmer stares down Putin as he and Biden prepare to hand Ukraine missiles
Prime minister set to hold intensive talks with US president to thrash out victory plan for war in Ukraine as Putin threatens war with Nato
Alexander Butler14 September 2024 07:00 1726292989Zelensky dismisses Trump’s contentious comments as political rhetoric
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Donald Trump’s comments about how he could end the war in 24 hours as “election messages” for his own campaign.
In an interview to CNN which is yet to be released, Mr Zelensky said his comments may not reflect what his actual policies will be if he is elected president.
“I can’t understand it for today because I don’t know the details; what he means and what does it mean,” Mr Zelensky said.
“My position is that the election period and election messages are election messages. Sometimes they are not very real,” he added said during a clip of the interview, which is set to be fully published on 15 September.
Mr Trump has said he can end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours if he is made president, and blamed the Biden administration for fuelling the war with the supply of weapons to support Kyiv’s defences.
Shweta Sharma14 September 2024 06:49 Newer1 / 5OlderDisclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
