On June 1, when the White House announced that it would be sending to Ukraine weapons to fight Russia, Deputy U.S. National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer said Washington had asked Ukraine for assurances the missiles would not strike inside Russia.
On June 3, Ukraine’s government rejected that request. According to an article published by RT, Oleksiy Arestovych, whom they identify as a presidential advisor, said Ukraine will use U.S.-supplied rocket systems to strike into Russian territory should it deem such attacks necessary. “Crimea is ours,” said Arestovych, “it belongs to Ukraine. And they [Russia] know it,” RT quoted him as saying.
Already in 2019, Arestovych, in a video statement that went viral in Russia, said that a war “at the end of 2021” with Russia was “the price to pay for Ukraine” to become a member of NATO.
RT underscored that “Arestovych’s comment comes despite U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying on Wednesday [June 1] that Kyiv has given Washington ‘assurances’ that it won’t use American rockets to attack targets in Russia. Arestovych’s statement echoes the claim made by another Ukrainian politician. Egor Chernev, a Ukrainian MP, said on Wednesday that Russian aircraft and military stationed on Russia’s territory are ‘legitimate targets.’”
On June 4, Eric Zuesse, in an article on Modern Diplomacy, makes the point that “if Ukraine uses U.S. weapons to invade Russia, then under existing international law, the U.S. will be a participant in that invasion. Russia would have a good case that participation would be either intentional, or else negligent. … If America says ‘negligent,’ then Russia would ask what America will do to rectify that matter. If America instead says ‘intentional,’ then there will exist, from that moment on, a hot war between Russia and America. The loser in any hot war between Russia and America will escalate the conflict to a nuclear war in order to avoid becoming conquered by the other side. That would be not only WW III but a nuclear WW III, and would destroy all of the allies of each side, and would severely contaminate even neutral countries, and end globally in a nuclear winter, which would possibly end all life as it has existed on this planet.” (https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/06/04/ukraine-says-it-might-use-u-s-weapons-to-invade-russia/)
