The developments on the war front in Ukraine are rapid, with both sides escalating their movements, while concern is intense in the world community.
At midday on Wednesday, air defense sirens sounded in Kiev with the mayor of the Ukrainian capital warning residents not to ignore them.
⚡️KIEV MAYOR: ‘DO NOT IGNORE THE AIR ALERT THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN ANNOUNCED IN KIEV. MISSILE DANGER.’⚡️ https://t.co/fZ3V9mbXqF
— Russian Market (@runews) November 20, 2024
Putin’s new threats
Ukraine’s strikes deep inside Russia, facilitated by NATO, will not go unpunished, Russia’s foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryskin said Wednesday, according to state news agency RIA.
It is recalled that American long-range ATACMS missiles hit Russian territory on Tuesday, after US President Joe Biden gave the green light for their use by Ukrainian forces.
At the same time, following Vladimir Putin’s approval of Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine, under which Moscow could consider using nuclear weapons, the US, followed by Greece and Spain, closed their embassies in Kiev under fear of air attack.
Why did the US-Russia red phone go silent?
Meanwhile, the special hotline set up to defuse crises between the Kremlin and the White House is currently not being used, the Russian presidency announced today, as nuclear risks rise amid heightened tensions between Russia and West for decades.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday eased the conditions for a nuclear strike in response to a wider range of conventional attacks, just days after reports that Washington had allowed Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike targets deep inside Russian soil.
Ukraine yesterday on the 1,000th day of the war in Ukraine used US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory, taking advantage of the recently granted permission by the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden.
The comparison with the crisis of 1962
The special telephone line, known as the “red phone”, between Moscow and Washington was created in 1963 to reduce the misunderstandings that sparked the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, allowing direct communication between the leaders of the US and Russia.
“We have a special secure line for communication between the two presidents, of Russia and the US. Moreover, even for video communication,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS. However, when asked if it is currently being used, Peskov replied: “No.”
Moscow said the use of ATACMS missiles, which are the longest-range missiles Washington has supplied Ukraine with so far, is a clear sign that the West wants to escalate the conflict.
The war, which Russia started with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has destroyed hundreds of Ukrainian cities and villages, displaced millions of people and claimed the lives of thousands of civilians, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long called on Washington and its NATO allies to allow Kiev to use long-range weapons, arguing that it is needed to destroy military infrastructure, as well as transportation infrastructure that plays an important role in its war effort. of Russia.
Moscow has announced that such weapons cannot be launched without direct operational support from the US and that their use would make Washington a direct party to the war, provoking Russian retaliation.
“Russia will not back down”
Russian diplomats say the crisis now between Moscow and Washington is comparable to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the two Cold War superpowers came closer than ever to a voluntary nuclear war, and note that the West is wrong to believes that Russia will back down on Ukraine.
The Kremlin has announced that Russia views nuclear weapons as a deterrent and that its updated nuclear doctrine is intended to make it clear to potential enemies that it is inevitable that it will retaliate if they attack Russia.
Today, Peskov told Russia’s RIA news agency that the West is seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia by allowing Kiev to strike targets deep inside Russian territory with US-made weapons.
“And of course they use Ukraine as a tool in their hands to achieve these goals,” Peskov noted.
Erdoğan’s intervention – Lightning against Biden
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Reuters reports, said Ukraine and Russia should focus on peace and show restraint.
Turkey’s president also said the US decision to allow longer-range Ukrainian strikes against Russia would further escalate the conflict and provoke a Russian response. He stated that he opposes this move.
“Calm” says the Chinese Foreign Ministry
China appealed for “calmness” and “restraint” a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that widens the chances of Moscow resorting to a nuclear weapon.
“Under the current circumstances, all parties should maintain calm and exercise restraint, working together through dialogue and consultation to ease tensions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference.
“China’s position, which urges all sides to de-escalate (…) and commit to a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis, remains unchanged,” the spokesman added.
Marking 1,000 days since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin signed an executive order on Tuesday expanding the possibility of resorting to nuclear weapons, shortly after the United States gave Kiev permission to strike Russian soil with American-made long-range missiles.
Putin had warned since late September that any attack against his country by a non-nuclear country but backed by a nuclear-armed power could be considered a “joint” attack that might require resorting to a nuclear weapon.
The revision of Russian nuclear doctrine was denounced by many leaders in the West.
Macron denounces the escalation
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the “escalation” in Russia’s stance on Ukraine, demanding that Vladimir Putin show “reason” and calling on Xi to throw “all his weight”, exert “pressure”, use “the his ability to negotiate” for the Russian president to stop the attacks.
In the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, China regularly calls for peace talks and respect for the territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine.
But it has not condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukrainian territory that began in February 2022 — indeed Beijing-Moscow economic, diplomatic and military relations have strengthened.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman also called Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai a “lackey” of China’s adversaries as he prepares to speak for the first time after nearly four years of silence in his complicity trial with foreign powers in Hong Kong.
“Jimmy Lai is the main conspirator and participant in the anti-China chaos in Hong Kong and is an agent and lackey of the anti-China forces,” Lin Jian said at the press conference.
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