The call to order is severe. While Ukraine has been increasing strikes and incursions into Russian territory for several days, the United States has firmly reminded Kiev of the ban on using American military equipment for such actions. “We don’t want to encourage or allow this, we certainly don’t want US-made equipment to be used to attack Russian soil.”National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, May 25 on CNN.
“We have been very clear that we want Ukraine to be able to defend its own soil, its own territory. They were attacked. They have been invaded. They have the right to defend themselves. But (…) we do not want to see this war escalate beyond the devastation and violence that is already affecting the Ukrainian people”explained the adviser to the White House, claiming to have “obtained from the Ukrainians the assurance that they will respect these wishes”.
This clarification comes after the broadcast on Russian social networks of images showing that American armored vehicles Humvee and MaxxPro were used, Monday, May 22, during the attack on the border post of Graivoron, in the Russian region of Belgorod, northeast Ukraine. For forty-eight hours, fighters from the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Russian Freedom Legion, two military groups rallied in Kiev, entered Russian territory for several kilometres, causing the death of a civilian and injuring thirteen others, according to the governor of the region.
Important arms industry
The Western concern is all the greater as troops from kyiv have multiplied attacks on Russian soil in recent weeks, in places sometimes very far from Ukraine. On Friday, two drones again hit Krasnodar, a major Russian city located southeast of the Sea of Azov and more than 350 kilometers from the front. The day before, a missile was shot down over the city of Morozovsk, 300 kilometers from Ukrainian lines. Belgorod and Briansk, located in Russian territory in the north of Ukraine, are also regularly the target of bombardments.
More symbolically, two drones of unknown origin targeted the Kremlin on May 3, without causing significant damage or casualties. Ukraine has denied any responsibility for the attack, hinting that it could be Russian manipulation, but the thesis does not convince across the Atlantic. According to US intelligence officials, quoted on May 24 by the New York Times, the attack could have been fomented by Ukrainian security services. The degree of involvement of the kyiv authorities, and in particular Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, remains unclear.
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