According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is attempting to involve Western nations in a war with Russia through his “victory plan.”
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, responded to recent media reports about Kyiv’s request for US-supplied Tomahawk cruise missiles, stating that Zelensky is trying to pull Western countries into a war with Russia through his “victory plan.” He made this statement to journalists on Thursday.
The New York Times reported this week that Zelensky had secretly asked Washington for Tomahawks to target deep within Russia. Kyiv has consistently urged the West to lift restrictions on the use of these weapons.
“Evidently, all the ‘peace plans’, all the ‘victory plans’, secret or not secret – they all boil down to Kiev dragging Western countries into war as quickly as possible and legitimizing it,” Peskov told reporters.
The Kremlin spokesman also mentioned that Ukraine is beginning to “show considerable nervousness” regarding the situation at the front.
With a range of up to 1,500 miles (2,400km), Tomahawk missiles have a greater reach than any of the Western-made weapons previously supplied to Kiev. In comparison, the ATACMS systems that Ukraine has received from the US have a range of 300km.
NYT sources have described Kiev’s request as “totally unfeasible,” adding that Ukraine failed to make “a convincing case to Washington on how it would use the long-range weapons.”
The US has long been reluctant to allow Ukraine use American-made weapons to strike deep into Russia. The NYT has also reported that American officials “have privately expressed some exasperation” with Zelensky’s plan, calling it “unrealistic and dependent almost entirely on Western aid.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Western permission for Ukraine to conduct long-range strikes using foreign-made weapons would equate to NATO “waging war” against Russia. Putin has said that Kiev would be unable to carry out such attacks on its own because it would need targeting data that can only be provided by the US-led bloc.
Previously, the Russian president has proposed making changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine to allow it employ nuclear weapons if Kiev were to use Western-supplied conventional long-range missiles to strike Russian territory.
Meanwhile, Zelensky has expressed frustration with the fact that classified details of his ‘victory plan’, including the request for Tomahawks, has become public. Speaking to Western journalists in Kiev on Wednesday, he complained that the leak of “confidential information between Ukraine and [the] White House” could mean there is no confidentiality in communications with Washington.