Moscow claims the US is “playing with fire” by engaging in an “indirect war”

According to a senior Russian diplomat, the US is playing with fire over Ukraine by acting in a way that could cause the situation to spiral out of control and has long since entered into an indirect conflict with Moscow.

In an interview with the official TASS news agency, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made remarks that reflected growing Russian anxiety over what Moscow views as a hazardous Western escalation in Ukraine as Russian forces advance in multiple locations.

They are playing with fire, we caution you. With reference to the US, Ryabkov told TASS, “They have been engaged in an indirect war with the Russian Federation for a considerable amount of time.

“They somehow fail to realise that, in order to satisfy their own geopolitical ideas, they are approaching a phase in which it will be very difficult to control what is happening and to prevent a dramatic crisis.”

Russia is accused by the West and Ukraine of launching an unprovoked aggressive war in Ukraine with the goal of annexing land. Launched in February 2022, Moscow claims that its “special military operation” is defensive, designed to strengthen Russian security against an adversarial West.

The Russian defense ministry stated this month that President Vladimir Putin has authorized drills to practice using tactical nuclear weapons in reaction to Western rhetoric. Russia has seen recent remarks made by Western diplomats as an aggressive shift in stance.

During a visit to Kyiv on May 3, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron stated that Ukraine was free to use the weapons that Britain had given it to attack targets inside of Russia and that Kyiv had the option to do so or not.

During a visit to Kiev on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made similar remarks regarding U.S.-supplied weapons and charged Putin with “ramping up yet another offensive against Ukraine” in the east.
Blinken stated that the United States had “not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine, but ultimately Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it’s going to conduct this war.”

In an effort to weaken Moscow’s military capabilities, Ukraine has attacked military and energy targets throughout Russia, while Russia is shelling targets inside Ukraine, killing thousands of civilians in the process.

Moscow has also been enraged by actions taken by the US and the EU to consider the prospect of utilizing frozen Russian assets or the proceeds from them to support Ukraine. Russia charges that Washington is attempting to coerce European nations into adopting more drastic measures to obstruct it in Ukraine.

RESIDING “IN A BOX”

Ryabkov told TASS that Washington didn’t seem to understand the serious implications associated with its actions.

“This rhetoric, this drumming, this constant baiting of their allies to help Ukraine even more, to expand their support, shows only one thing: people are living, as they themselves say, ‘in a box’,” he stated.

Ryabkov expressed dissatisfaction with the West’s approach to Russia, arguing that it was attempting to create a situation in which Moscow could not predict how NATO would respond in different scenarios, including the use of nuclear weapons.

“Russia will put the topic of ‘red lines’ aside and will respond to the West in a mirror manner,” Ryabkov stated.

He continued by saying that Russia’s diplomacy with the West was currently in crisis management mode and was aimed at preventing tensions from developing into a protracted war.