Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, warned this morning that NATO countries that have approved strikes with their weapons on Russian territory should be aware that their equipment and specialists will be destroyed not only in Ukraine, but also at any point from where Russian territory is attacked. “All their military equipment and specialists fighting against us, will be destroyed as in the territory of the former Ukraine, and on the territory of other countries, if attacks are carried out on Russian territory from there,” Medvedev said on his Telegram channel.
Medvedev added that Moscow proceeded from the fact that all long-range weapons supplied to Ukraine were already “Russia proceeds from the fact that all long-range weapons used by former Ukraine are already directly controlled by military personnel of NATO countries. This is not ‘military assistance’ at all, but participation in a war against us. And such actions of theirs may well become a casus belli,” which is tantamount to participation in the war against Russia and a reason to start combat operations, reported TASS. “NATO will have to decide how to qualify the consequences of possible retaliatory strikes on equipment/facilities/military personnel of individual countries of the bloc in the context of Art. 4 and 5 of the Washington Treaty,” that is, the treaty that established NATO. [Emphases in original.]
At the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Sputnik, charging that NATO countries and especially the United States have been deliberately escalating tension around the Ukrainian conflict in recent days. “They are doing this deliberately, we hear many belligerent statements. This is nothing more than provoking a new level of tension,” Peskov told reporters.
NATO countries are provoking Ukraine to continue the senseless war with Russia, Peskov said, adding that they intend to continue the war with Russia and this will have consequences. The damage will ultimately be caused to the countries that have taken the path of escalating tensions on the Ukrainian track, the spokesman added.
