MOSCOW (TASS/Reuters) – A
senior Russian Foreign Ministry official has warned the Western countries that supplying long-range and more advanced weapons to Ukraine would cross Russia’s red lines and in that case they have to be ready for a response.
“As for the red lines, we have already designated them. First of all, these are the deliveries of long-range or more powerful weapons to Kiev. Specific measures of response to the actions by the United States and its allies supplying weapons to the Kiev regime will be defined following a thorough analysis of the developing situation,” Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second CIS Department Alexey Polischchuk told TASS news agency on Sunday.
Russia has sufficient tools to implement them, the high-ranking Russian diplomat said.
The U.S. has been by far the largest supplier of weapons to Ukraine since Russia launched its “special military operation” there in February, supplying more than 800,000 NATO standard 155mm artillery shells to Kiev - three-quarters of the total amount delivered by all Western countries, according to official Pentagon statistics.
Early on Sunday, a Russian missile attack struck an apartment block and other residential buildings in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 13 people and wounding 87 others, including 10 children, Ukrainian officials said.
Rail services and partial road traffic meanwhile resumed a day after a powerful blast damaged a bridge linking Russia to Crimea that is a key supply route to Moscow’s forces battling in southern Ukraine and an imposing symbol of its annexation of the peninsula.
Saturday’s explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials.
The pre-dawn fusillade in Zaporizhzhia on Sunday was the second of its kind against the city in three days.
Russian aircraft launched at least 12 missiles, partially destroying a nine-storey apartment block, leveling five other residential buildings and damaging many more, Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on state-run television.
Washington has openly supplied Ukraine with advanced guided multiple launch rocket system (GMLRS) rockets, which are fired from high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) launchers and which can hit targets up to 80km (50 miles) away.
HIMARS launchers can also be used to fire longer-range ATACMS tactical missiles, which can have a range of up to 300km (186 miles). U.S. officials say Ukraine has promised not to use U.S. rockets to strike Russia itself.
Last month, Zakharova warned the United States that if they decided to supply Kiev with longer-range missiles, it would cross a “red line” and become “a party to the conflict” in Ukraine.
The United States is worried that targeting Russia’s territory and crossing Moscow’s red line will lead to the escalation of the war and draw Washington into a direct conflict with the Russian President Vladimir Putin.