According to a state propaganda channel, US has practically “gone to war” with Russia after crossing “every red line.”
Igor Korotchenko was responding to a comment made by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who often appears as a “foreign policy expert” on Russian propaganda TV programs.
Ms. Nuland had said that Washington backed Ukraine’s efforts to regain Crimea, which Putin took in 2014. “Ukraine is not going to be secure until Crimea is at a least, at a minimum, demilitarized,” she remarked on Thursday, February 16.
Attacking Crimea would go against one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “red lines,” leading to a significant escalation of the conflict that erupted on February 24 of last year.
According to Korotchenko, by urging action against Crimea, Ms. Nuland had essentially declared war on Russia.
He said that today the US State Department essentially declared war on Russia “after the US breached every possible and unthinkable red line.”
Korotchenko stated, as translated by Kremlin watchdog TheKremlinYap: “I presume that this is how we should take Nuland’s remark. Half tones are not required. The US is Russia’s military foe and an enemy.
“If it anticipates carrying out huge missile attacks on Russian territory with their assistance, but as though by someone else’s hands, then maybe we might see this as [a justification to declare war] and respond appropriately,” he said.
In reaction to the United States’ brazen declaration, Korotchenko said he wanted to see Russian authorities provide “sufficient, conceptual, doctrinal, and military replies,” and that the proper steps should be done.
“What kind of steps?” We will see, he concluded.
The Crimean government, which receives support from Russia, has previously said that Ukrainian drones tried to launch attacks near Sevastopol, the major city in the area.
On Friday, February 17, the city’s Russian-appointed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, posted on his Telegram channel that a Ukrainian drone had been shot down above a thermal power plant in the neighborhood of Balaklava.
His assertion follows a day-old allegation claiming that Russian air defenses shot down two drones above Sevastopol.
In what he called a “failed Ukrainian strike,” Razvozhayev claimed last month that 10 Ukrainian drones had been shot down above Sevastopol.
None of the purported drone strikes have been attributed to Ukraine.
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