Kremlin official Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday the United States was “de facto” involved in the conflict in Ukraine, a day after US President Joe Biden pledged to continue security aid.
During a regular phone call with journalists, Peskov said US involvement “can be seen with the naked eye.”
“The United States is already really caught up in this conflict,” he said.
“We have heard statements from the current US administration about their plans to continue handing over weapons and to further prolong this conflict in order to make it as painful as possible for the Ukrainian side,” Peskov said.
Some context: Peskov’s comments come after Biden condemned Monday’s attacks on Ukrainian cities and continued to promise US security aid “including advanced air defense systems.”
The White House has not specified which air defense systems Biden has discussed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the United States has previously committed to providing Ukraine with National Advanced SurfacetoAir Missile Systems (NASAMS). NASAMS would be able to attack Russian cruise missiles.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated similar comments to Peskov in an interview with Russian state media.
“It seems to me that the Americans have actually been taking part in this war for a long time, they are not only arming Zelenskyy and his regime, they are providing information from military and commercial satellites that are now used in military plans,” Lavrov said.
“In the West itself, they are already beginning to understand that they are going further than intended,” he said.
SOURCE: CNN