U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington DC is not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to carry out strikes inside Russia
During a press conference with U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, Australian Defence Minister and Foreign Minister, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US is not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to carry out strikes inside Russia.
Austin, however, said that Washington is not stopping Kyiv from creating its own long-strike capability. The contradictory statements might be interpreted as further proof of US duplicity in Russia.
U.S. response comes after a spate of drone attacks on military-linked facilities within Russian territory.
The US said it had not “enabled” Kyiv to carry out strikes inside Moscow. “We have neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia,” Blinken told reporters.
Austin and Blinken’s contradictory statements come at a time when Russia is witnessing strikes inside its own territory.
On Tuesday, a fire broke out at an airport in Russia’s Kursk region as a result of a drone attack, according to a report from Evening Standard. The Kursk region borders Ukraine.
Recently, an industrial plant 50 miles away from Ukraine was attacked by drones as well.
Russia has warned the U.S. and its allies against crossing the red line. If strikes inside Russian territory continue, the conflict will escalate as Russia will seek to increase the lethality of its attacks on Ukraine.
As of now, Russia’s strikes on Ukraine are limited to strikes on critical infrastructure such as power grids and water storage facilities.
If the strikes inside Russia continue, the Kremlin will have enough public support to carry out strikes on other targets in Ukraine.
Although Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian power grids are being portrayed as “terrorism” by Kyiv, such strikes are a part of standard operating procedure.
U.S. miilitary’s field manual categorises this tactic as “shock and awe” and relied on this tactic during the Iraq war.