Russian lawmaker and former spy Maria Butina said on Monday that the administration of President Joe Biden was risking World War III if it had allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia. “These guys, Biden’s administration, is trying to escalate the situation to the maximum while they still have power and are still in office,” Butina said.
“I have a great hope that (President-elect Donald) Trump will overcome this decision if this has been made because they are seriously risking the start of World War III which is not in anybody’s interest,” she told Reuters.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the Biden administration has made the decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike deep into Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean “the "direct involvement" of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine" because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles. In late October, Putin said that Russia’s defense ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles.
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Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, Joe Biden
(Photo: Ludovic Marinap/ AFP, Alex Brandon, Mikhail Metzel / Reuters )
Aftermath of a Russian bombing in Ukraine
“I guess there are some people in the United States who have nothing to lose for whatever reason or who are completely off the grid so much that they simply do not care,” Butina, who spent 15 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said.
Donald Trump Jr., the son of president-elect Trump said in a post on X that the American 'military industrial complex' hoped to start WWIII before his father took office and had the chance to bring world peace.
Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia's lower house, the Duma, said late on Monday that the American approval of Ukraine's use of the ATACMS missiles to attack deep in Russian territory will result in a severe response and will "lead to an inevitable escalation that will have a threat of far greater implications."
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