Moscow warns of ‘consequences’ if US Patriot missiles go to Ukraine

Key points

• Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that if US sends sophisticated air defence missiles to Ukraine, it could prompt a response from Moscow.
• US officials said on Tuesday that Washington was poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine.
• Patriot missiles can better shoot down incoming Russian missiles that have crippled much of Ukraine’s vital infrastructure.
• For months the US has been reluctant to provide the system because it didn’t want to send in American forces into Ukraine to operate the systems.
• Even if US troops aren’t in Ukraine, concerns remain that deployment of the missiles could further escalate the conflict.

Kyiv: Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that if the United States confirms reports that it plans to deliver sophisticated air defence missiles to Ukraine, it would be “another provocative move by the US” that could prompt a response from Moscow.

Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a weekly briefing on Thursday that the US had “effectively become a party” to the war in Ukraine, following reports that it will provide Kyiv with Patriot surface-to-air missiles, the most advanced the West has yet offered to help repel Russian aerial attacks.

A US-made Patriot missile is launched during an annual exercises in Taiwan.Credit:AP

Growing amounts of US military assistance, including the transfer of such sophisticated weapons, “would mean even broader involvement of military personnel in the hostilities and could entail possible consequences,” Zakharova added.

She did not specify what the consequences might be.

US officials said on Tuesday that Washington was poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, finally agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more robust weapons to shoot down incoming Russian missiles that have crippled much of the country’s vital infrastructure. An official announcement is expected soon.

Russia has been crippling Ukraine’s power supply. A woman walks with a flashlight during a power outage in Kyiv.Credit:AP

Operating and maintaining a Patriot battery requires as many as 90 troops, and for months the US has been reluctant to provide the complex system because sending American forces into Ukraine to operate the systems is a nonstarter for the administration of President Joe Biden.

Even without the presence of US service members to train Ukrainians on use of the system, concerns remain that deployment of the missiles could provoke Russia or risk that a fired projectile could hit inside Russia and further escalate the conflict.

Before reports emerged on the delivery of Patriot systems, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, which is chaired by President Vladimir Putin, warned that if Patriots enter Ukraine “along with NATO personnel, they will immediately become a legitimate target for our armed forces”.

Asked Wednesday whether the Kremlin backs that threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered yes, but added in a conference call with reporters that he would refrain from more detailed comment until the US officially announces the Patriot delivery to Ukraine.

Cars cross the Patona Bridge at dusk in Kyiv, Ukraine in November. Electricity and heating outages across Ukraine caused by missile and drone strikes to energy infrastructure have added urgency preparations for winter. Credit:Getty

Ukraine has so far been cautious in reacting to the reports. Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, told reporters Thursday in Kyiv that the delivery of such weaponry remains “sensitive not only for Ukraine, but for our partners,” and that only President Volodymyr Zelensky or Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov would make any official announcement on such an agreement.

White House and Pentagon leaders have said consistently that providing Ukraine with additional air defences is a priority, and Patriot missiles have been under consideration for some time. As the winter closed in and the Russian bombardment of civilian infrastructure escalated, official said, the idea became a higher priority.

Ukraine’s electricity provider said on Thursday that the country’s energy system had a “significant deficit of electricity,” and that emergency shutdowns had been applied in some areas as temperatures hover around or below freezing.

The state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo warned in a statement on Facebook that damage caused to energy infrastructure by Russian attacks is being compounded by harsh weather, including snow, ice and strong winds.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says the US will “effectively become a party” to the war in Ukraine.Credit:AP

Maximum temperatures in the capital were forecast to barely climb above freezing heading into the weekend, with even colder weather expected early next week.

The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was left completely without power following Russian shelling on Thursday, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, who wrote on Telegram. He added that two people were killed in the attacks.

Heavy shelling of the city’s Korabelny district was still underway in the afternoon, and Russian shells hit 100 metres from the regional administration building, he said.

Amid the infrastructure attacks and power outages across the country, seven civilians were killed and 19 wounded on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a report issued by the Ukrainian president’s office.

The head of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported that Russian strikes the previous day had killed two civilians and wounded seven.

Kremlin-backed authorities in the region, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in September, announced that Russia had taken control of 80 per cent of the city of Marinka, seen as critical to Ukrainian hopes of retaking the Russian-held regional capital, Donetsk.

The Moscow-installed mayor of Donetsk, Aleksei Kulemzin, said on Thursday that the city centre had been hit by “the most massive strike” since the area came under the control of Russian-backed separatists in 2014.

Writing on Telegram, Kulemzin said 40 Ukrainian rockets struck Donetsk on Thursday morning, noting that multistory residential buildings were hit and that fires broke out at a hospital and university campus.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces shelled Russia’s western Kursk province, according to regional Governor Roman Starovoyt. Six shells reportedly struck a farm in the province’s Belovsky district, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy province. There were no casualties, Starovoyt wrote on Telegram.

In other developments Thursday:

— Russia continued to build up its military presence in Belarus, a senior Ukrainian military official said. According to Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov, Russian units “are undergoing training and combat coordination” in Belarus, with the Kremlin using Belarusian officers and training grounds to improve the combat capability of existing units, as well as to train newly created units.

Speaking at a press briefing, Hromov said the probability of a Russian offensive from Belarus “remains low,” but he highlighted that the transfer of Russian weapons to Belarus is ongoing, including three hypersonic missile-carrying aircraft, a set of tanks and a long-range radar-detection aircraft.

— Russia’s Foreign Ministry says the Vatican has apologised for a statement Pope Francis made in a recent interview in which he singled out two Russian ethnic minorities — the Chechens and the Buryats — as being “the most cruel” participants in the war in Ukraine.

At a briefing on Thursday, Zakharova quoted from what she said was a message from the Vatican that “apologises to the Russian side” for the pope’s comments. Zakharova praised the message, saying that it showed the Vatican’s “ability to conduct dialogue and listen to interlocutors.” A Vatican spokesman would say only that there had been diplomatic contacts on the matter.

AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.

Most Viewed in World

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article