Kremlin: Use of long-range US missiles for strikes inside Russia to open ‘new round of tension’

The Kremlin on Monday said the possible use of long-range US missiles on targets in Russia would ultimately lead to a "new round of tension" amid media reports that outgoing President Joe Biden allowed lifting restrictions on their use by Ukraine.

On Sunday, many media outlets citing anonymous officials, including The New York Times, reported that Biden has authorized Ukraine's use of ATACMS missiles for strikes inside Russia, marking a major change in US policy ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump in January 2025.

"If such a decision was really formulated and communicated to the Kyiv regime, then, of course, this is a qualitatively new round of tension and a qualitatively new situation from the point of view of the involvement of the US in this conflict," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Expressing that Russia's position must be absolutely clear to everyone, Peskov said these signals were read by the West and they were voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself during a meeting with the heads of leading international news agencies in St. Petersburg back in June.

Peskov further said Putin's position on this matter has been formulated "extremely clearly and unambiguously," further indicating that the Russian side is aware of such information only based on publications in Western media.

He also said the danger seen by the Kremlin with regards to this issue is that such long-range strikes are not carried out by Ukraine, but rather by those countries that give Kyiv permission.

"This radically changes the modality of their involvement in the conflict (in Ukraine)," Peskov went on to say, adding that the outgoing Biden administration intends to take steps to further escalate the tension around the Russia-Ukraine war.