(MOSCOW) — The Kremlin said Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s plans to send advanced rocket systems to Ukraine was “adding fuel to the fire.”
“We know that the United States has been purposefully and meticulously adding fuel to the fire,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. “The United States pursues the course towards fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.”
Biden said Tuesday the U.S. would provide advanced rocket systems to help Ukraine defend itself, as Russia’s invasion nears the 100-day mark.
“We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times. “That’s why I’ve decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Wednesday that if Ukraine receives multiple-launch rocket systems from the West there were “risks” of a third country becoming involved in the conflict, according to Interfax. “Such risks, of course, exist,” he told reporters, responding to a question, according to Interfax.
The White House’s principal deputy national security adviser, Jonathan Finer, said Wednesday morning that “Russia has brought this on itself.”
“We don’t negotiate our security assistance packages to Ukraine with the Kremlin,” Finer said during an interview with CNN, adding that Biden had warned Russian President Vladimir Putin “directly” that if he “launched a new, renewed invasion of Ukraine, the United States would increase the amount of security assistance we were providing, including new and advanced systems.”
“They have not been pleased by the amount of security assistance we’ve been providing to the Ukrainians, frankly, since far before this most recent phase of the conflict began,” Finer said.
The United States will send high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), which will enable the Ukrainians to “more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield from a greater distance inside Ukraine, and to help them repel Russians,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters Tuesday.
The missiles will be provided as part of a new, $700 million security assistance package for Ukraine — the 11th of its kind from the U.S. — which will also include additional javelin anti-tank missiles, helicopters, tactical vehicles and artillery rounds.
The HIMARS is a longer-range rocket system that can fire munitions up to 190 miles.
But the munitions the U.S. plans to provide Ukraine have a maximum range of around 50 miles, according to senior Biden administration officials.
Officials say they wanted to limit the range so that the weapons would be used on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine but not fired further into Russia itself.
As Russia has shifted its invasion to the east of the country, Ukrainian fighters have found themselves outgunned by a Russian military with more powerful artillery.
Ukraine has struggled to push back Russian advances, and its leaders have long asked the U.S. to send more powerful guns.
“We need more heavy weapons delivered as soon as possible, especially MLRS, to repel Russian attacks,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted last week, referring to multiple-launch rocket systems.
An official stressed that the Ukrainians had given the United States “assurances they will not use” the new systems the U.S. is providing “against targets in Russian territory.”
“These systems will be used by the Ukrainians to repel Russian advances on Ukrainian territory, but they will not be used against targets in Russia,” the official said.
The administration has taken pains to underscore this distinction, given Russia’s warning that advanced systems would be seen as an escalation.
Biden’s announcement came a day after he sparked confusion during a quick exchange with a reporter outside the White House.
Asked if he planned “to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine,” Biden only responded, “We’re not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.”
White House officials clarified they were still considering sending longer-range systems to Russia. Ultimately, the U.S. stopped short of sharing systems with an even longer range than HIMARS.
In his Tuesday New York Times essay, the president stressed the action was not intended to start a broader conflict, and said the U.S. was “not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders” – nor did it “want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.”
“We do not seek a war between NATO and Russia,” Biden wrote. “As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow.
“So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked,” he continued, “we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces.
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