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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has warned that if F-16 fighter jets provided to Ukraine by its Western allies operated from airfields in different international locations, the bases can be “official targets” for assault.
In a speech to Russian Air Drive pilots late Wednesday, nevertheless, Mr. Putin rejected recommendations from some Western leaders that Russia is planning to invade NATO international locations as “full nonsense.”
The menace that Russia may transfer towards different international locations has develop into one of many essential arguments utilized by the Ukrainian authorities and its supporters to attempt to persuade the U.S. to dispatch extra army assist to the nation.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, stated once more in an interview with CBS Information revealed on Thursday that warfare “can come to Europe, and to the USA of America.”
“It could actually come in a short time to Europe,” stated Mr. Zelensky.
On the United Nations on Thursday, Russia vetoed a decision that will have prolonged U.N. oversight of sanctions tied to North Korea’s nuclear program, prompting accusations from Western nations that it was appearing to maintain the pipeline of weaponry open from the North Koreans to be used in Ukraine.
The Russian vote — a reversal from its previous help for the monitoring program — drew condemnation from world leaders. In the USA, the White Home nationwide safety spokesman, John Kirby, known as it a “reckless motion” that made clear the rising ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.
The vote got here a day after Mr. Putin visited the provincial city of Torzhok within the Tver area north of Moscow, the place he inspected a coaching heart for Russian army pilots.
Talking with the pilots, Mr. Putin stated that Russia spent solely a fraction on its army of what the USA does. “Contemplating this distinction,” he stated, considerations that Moscow would battle NATO are “nonsense.”
Mr. Putin additionally reiterated his argument that NATO’s enlargement within the wake of the Soviet collapse was the first cause for his resolution to assault Ukraine in 2022.
“Did we cross the ocean and method U.S. borders?” he requested. “No, they’re those who’re closing in on us, and so they have reached our borders.”
However Mr. Putin did depart open the door to an expanded battlefield when it got here to the choice by Ukraine’s allies to equip it with American-made F-16 fighter jets.
“F16 plane also can carry nuclear weapons, and we must heed this whereas organizing our fight operations,” stated Mr. Putin.
Ukraine has additionally figured massive within the Kremlin’s response to the terrorist assault that killed at the least 143 folks final week at a live performance corridor exterior Moscow.
Since shortly after the assault, Mr. Putin and different Russian officers, with out proof, have depicted Ukraine because the doubtless mastermind behind it. Mr. Putin ultimately acknowledged that the assault had been “perpetrated by radical Islamists,” however caught with the competition that Ukraine might have ordered it.
On Thursday, persevering with in that vein, Russia’s investigative committee, the nation’s equal to the F.B.I., stated in an announcement that it had “obtained proof” that the attackers have been “related with Ukrainian nationalists,” with out specifying what that proof was.
Investigators stated that they’d “confirmed knowledge that the perpetrators of the terrorist assault obtained important quantities of cash and cryptocurrency from Ukraine, which have been utilized in getting ready the crime.” Additionally they stated that one other particular person had been arrested in reference to the assault and would quickly seem in courtroom.
The Ukrainian authorities has denied any involvement within the assault. America and different Western governments have stated repeatedly that the Islamic State — which itself has issued two claims of duty — was behind the assault and that Ukraine was not concerned.
With 74 victims of the live performance corridor assault nonetheless hospitalized, Mr. Putin has but to go to them or to go to the location of the assault. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman stated on Thursday that Mr. Putin had been closely concerned within the rescue effort on the night time of the assault, and {that a} go to to the location of the assault would hinder their work.
Emin Agalarov, an government with the proprietor of the live performance corridor, the Crocus Group, on Thursday defended how his workers had dealt with the assault and its aftermath, together with a fireplace within the corridor, and the constructing’s compliance with fireplace security and safety necessities. Talking on state tv, Mr. Agalarov stated that the hearth and different emergency techniques had labored usually and allowed 1000’s of individuals to evacuate the constructing.
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