Peskov says more involvement of Western countries in the conflict in Ukraine

After Kiev authorized long-range US missile strikes on Russian territory, the West is being increasingly drawn into the conflict in Ukraine. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 20.

"The very fact that these Western countries are getting even more involved in this conflict <...> leads to new rounds of tension and escalation. This is bad," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying .

Earlier in the day, Peskov, commenting on the authorization of strikes on Russian territory with long-range weapons, said that the West continues to use Ukraine as a tool to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.

On November 17, The New York Times reported that US President Joe Biden allegedly authorized Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to strike Russia, but there has been no official confirmation of this information yet.

Later, on November 19, the Russian Defense Ministry said that calculations of S-400 air defense missile systems (SAMs) and Pantsir air defense missile and cannon systems (SAMs) shot down five ATACMS missiles fired by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the Bryansk region and damaged another one. The wreckage of the latter fell on the territory of a military facility, which started a fire, but it was promptly extinguished. There were no casualties or damage.

After that, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved an updated Russian nuclear doctrine . Among the grounds for the use of such weapons by Russia in the document is a response to the use of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction against the country and its allies. In addition, Russia may launch a nuclear strike if an attack threatening territorial integrity is launched against it or Belarus.

In turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, responding to Izvestia's question, said that the strike carried out by the AFU with ATACMS missiles is a signal that the West wants to escalate the conflict.

The AFU is trying to strike Russian territories against the backdrop of the special operation in Donbass, the start of which was announced on February 24, 2022. The decision was taken due to the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.