Russian state television considered that the United States had “declared war on the country,” in the wake of an American declaration of support for Ukraine in launching strikes on the Crimea peninsula.
Russian journalist Igor Korotchenko said on state television, Sunday, that Washington had “crossed the red line” by announcing support for Ukrainian strikes on the peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
The US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, said that the United States believes that Crimea should be disarmed.
And the US official stressed that “Washington supports the launching of Ukrainian attacks on military targets in Crimea.”
Korotchenko comments on Russian state television:
• “After the United States crossed all possible and unimaginable red lines, the US State Department announced that it would go to war with Russia.”
• “I suppose this is how we should interpret Nuland’s statement. There is no need for halftones. The US is Russia’s enemy and military adversary.”
• “If Washington expects massive missile strikes on Russian soil that will be carried out with its help, but with someone else’s hands, perhaps we can consider that a reason for war, and we must respond accordingly.”
• “I want the Russian officials to give appropriate, conceptual, ideological and military responses to this bold statement of the United States, and appropriate measures should be taken. What kind of action? We’ll see.”
And on Sunday, the Kremlin directed a harsh criticism of the United States, after Nuland’s statement, which he considered “a major instigator of fueling international tension, and highlights the depth of the dispute between the two countries.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in statements published by the Russian news agency “Tass”: “Nuland belongs to a large camp that includes the most hostile hawks of American politics. This is a point of view that we know well.”
