Russia warns the West: do not test our patience

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting of the Council of Legislators at the Federal Assembly in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on April 27, 2022. Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Kremlin via REUTERS

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) – Russia warned the West on Thursday that there would be a harsh military response to any new attack on Russian soil, accusing the United States and its main European allies of openly goading Ukraine to attack Russia.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of the most serious confrontation between Russia and the United States since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Two months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia has reported in recent days what it says are a series of attacks by Ukrainian forces in Russian regions bordering Ukraine, warning that such attacks risk escalation. significant.

Ukraine has not directly accepted responsibility but says the incidents are revenge, while Russia has taken offense at statements by NATO member Britain that it is legitimate for Ukraine to target Russian logistics. read more

“In the West, they are openly asking kyiv to attack Russia even with the use of weapons received from NATO countries,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow.

“I do not advise you to further test our patience.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that if such attacks continue, Moscow would target decision-making centers in Ukraine, including those where it said Western advisers were helping kyiv.

“kyiv and Western capitals should take seriously the Defense Ministry’s statement that further inciting Ukraine to attack Russian territory will definitely lead to a harsh response from Russia,” Zakharova said.

Zakharova presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a puppet of the West, who was being used by the United States to threaten Russia.

“You are being used,” Zakharova said.

The United States has ruled out sending its own or NATO forces to Ukraine, but Washington and its European allies have supplied kyiv with weapons, including drones, Howitzer heavy artillery, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Total US security assistance since the invasion amounts to about $3.7 billion, a US official said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is presenting such large arms shipments as part of a larger plan by the United States and its allies to destroy Russia, and has vowed that it will never succeed.

Putin says the “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend itself against persecution of Russian-speakers.

He frames the conflict as an inevitable confrontation with the United States, which he accuses of threatening Russia by meddling in his backyard and expanding the NATO military alliance.

Ukraine says it is fighting an imperial-style land grab and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. Zelenskiy has been pleading with American and European leaders to supply kyiv with heavier weapons and equipment.

Reuters reporting Edited by Raissa Kasolowsky

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