Russian officials condemned recent comments by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland about Crimea and accused her of trying to escalate the war in Ukraine.
During a Thursday discussion with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Nuland said the United States supports Ukrainian strikes on Russian military targets in Crimea. She also said that “Ukraine is not going to be safe unless Crimea is at a minimum, at a minimum, demilitarized.”
Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and many analysts have said that potential Ukrainian efforts to regain control of the region could cross one of Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s “red lines” that would result in an escalation of the war, which will reach the one-year mark on February 24.
Nuland “has admitted that the [Biden] administration is fueling the ambitions of the Kyiv regime to attack our country,” Russia’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. “Inciting Kyiv criminals to attack Crimea is the same as pushing them to attack Moscow or Vladivostok.”
Nuland’s comments about Crimea came as the Moscow-backed government of the region claimed that Ukrainian drones attempted strikes on or near the city of Sevastopol.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, wrote on his Telegram channel Friday that a Ukrainian drone was shot down over a thermal power plant in Balaklava, a town near Sevastopol. A day earlier, Razvozhayev claimed that Russian air defenses had downed two drones over Sevastopol.
Last month, Razvozhayev made similar claims on Telegram about air defenses destroying 10 drones over Sevastopol in what he referred to as a “failed Ukrainian attack.”
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for any of the alleged drone incidents.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Friday addressed Nuland’s remarks while speaking with reporters.
“Now the American warmongers have gone even further. They incite the Kyiv regime to further escalate the war,” Zakharova said, according to Reuters. “They supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence and participate directly in the planning of combat operations.”
The statement from the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., also accused the U.S. of being directly involved in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s military efforts.
Nuland’s comments about “supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces in carrying out strikes on Crimea are a clear confirmation of Russia’s position that the United States is directly involved in the conflict,” the embassy said. “It should finally become obvious to the entire international community that the United States is the actual instigator of confrontation in Ukraine.”
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Embassy in the United States and the U.S. Department of State for comment.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-claims-us-pushing-ukraine-cross-putins-red-line-1782027?piano_t=1
“They supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence and participate directly in the planning of combat operations.”
So what whore! Read the UN charter. Any country is allowed to ask for help to defend itself from shithole countries that invade their neighbours.
Crimea was never voluntarily part of Russia or the USSR. Therefore it is not Russia or the USSR. When the Moskali say Crimea is part of Russia or the USSR they can’t claim to be a Democracy.
More whining by losers.
“Inciting Kyiv criminals to attack Crimea is the same as pushing them to attack Moscow or Vladivostok.”
There is no legal basis to say a country can’t reclaim its own occupied territory. Ukraine has the right. Ukraine also has the legal right, as Russia admits, to attack bases in Russia where attacks are launched from.
The US will help Ukraine to exercise it’s rights.
But yes, let’s all admit the US encourages democracy and that is a problems for the regime in Moscow. It limits their ability to co-opt other nations.
Mafia land is not a country, and it should be wiped off the face of the earth.