After British Foreign Minister David Cameron stated that Ukraine was allowed to use British weapons for attacks on Russian soil, an express response came from the Kremlin, writes Newsweek.
They condemned the “dangerous” rhetoric of Western officials, saying it was an example of “verbal escalation” that could threaten European security.
Earlier on Friday, the Reuters news agency cited Cameron’s statements, made during an official visit to Kyiv, in which he gave the green light to Ukraine to use newly supplied British weapons on targets inside Russia.
This marks the latest escalation in the war of words between Moscow and Western leaders and officials over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The United Kingdom (UK) is one of the largest European suppliers of military aid to Ukraine in the war. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to continue to support Kyiv ‘as long as necessary’.
Speaking to Reuters, Cameron, who was prime minister of the UK from 2010 to 2016, said Ukraine should be allowed to use weapons provided by London to attack targets on Russian soil.
“Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is attacking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it defends itself,” Cameron said.
“Another very dangerous statement,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told Russia’s state news agency. “We see such verbal escalation by official representatives. We see it both at the level of heads of state when it comes to France, and at a more professional level, when it comes to Great Britain. These are direct escalations of tension around the Ukrainian conflict, which can potentially pose a danger for European security, for the entire security architecture of Europe.”
On April 24th, Sunak said the UK was putting its defense industry on ‘warfare’ as he promised a new £500 million (more than BAM 1 billion) military package for Ukraine that includes 400 vehicles, 60 boats, and four million rounds of ammunition.
“In a world that is the most dangerous since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent,” Sunak told reporters during a briefing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Poland.
Andriy Sadovyi, mayor of the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, said on X that Cameron’s remarks about the use of British weapons in Russia ‘strengthen Ukraine’s hopes’. Cameron emphasized the importance of Ukraine winning the war.
“A future in which Putin is successful and Ukraine is pushed back is, I think, a very dangerous future,” he said during a visit to Kyiv. “I think we’re at an absolutely crucial tipping point.”
Cameron said the UK would give Ukraine aid ‘as long as it takes’: “We will give three billion pounds every year for as long as it takes,” Radio Sarajevo writes.
E.Dz.
