Russia last night accused the US of providing intelligence for long-range missile strikes deep inside the country.
In the latest fall out between the Kremlin and the White House, a Moscow spokesperson said the US was already facilitating attacks on Russia’s infrastructure.
The salvo by Vladimir Putin‘s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov came after reports the US is considering offering Ukraine such assistance.
Ukraine has been targeting Russia’s petrochemical sites causing fuel to be rationed and potentially affecting the country’s lucrative energy exports.
They are poised to step up this assault on the Kremlin’s industrial heartlands using US Tomahawk missiles if Donald Trump agrees to export them.
The unpredictable US President appears to be turning the screw on President Putin in a bid to end the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said US and NATO is already providing intelligence support for Ukrainian airstrikes deep inside his country
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met European allies yesterday, has seemingly convinced US President Donald Trump the country can recover vital territory.
NATO partners are also expected to provide similar intelligence to help Ukraine which has repelled a Russian offensive and seized back significant amounts of territory.
Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met European leaders and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Copenhagen.
Since meeting President Putin in Alaska in August, President Trump’s rhetoric towards Russia has shifted significantly.
President Trump is presently the most openly supportive he has been towards Ukraine since his return to the White House.
Western intelligence reports have confirmed Russia’s territorial gains have plummeted and Ukraine has recaptured frontline villages.
These reports led to President Trump saying he believed it was possible for Ukraine to win back its sovereignty.
Asked about a Wall Street Journal article suggesting the US was poised to step-up intelligence support, Dmitry Peskov said: ‘The are already doing this. The supply and the use of the entire infrastructure of NATO and the United States to collect and transfer intelligence to the Ukrainians is obvious.’
Ukraine is understood to have requested US Tomahawk cruise missiles to target Russian industrial infrastructure. These have a range of 1,550 miles.
A Tomahawk cruise missile fired from the HMAS Brisbane in December last year.
Ukraine has also produced its own long-range missile, the Flamingo.
It comes as Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in the Kyiv region led to a blackout, cutting power supply to the Chernobyl nuclear plant, Ukraine’s energy ministry said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the Russians ‘could not have been unaware that a strike on the facilities in Slavutych would have such consequences for Chornobyl’.
Off-site power was restored at the Chornobyl nuclear plant 16 hours after the outage, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
Russia has rejected comparisons to the Cold War, saying tensions with the West have escalated into a ‘fiery’ conflict.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the EU and NATO are spreading false claims about Russian sabotage to justify increased military spending.
‘I would disagree with the comparison with the Cold War,’ she told reporters on Thursday.
‘We are already in another form of conflict. There has been no cold here for a long time; there is already fire here.’
The war in Ukraine has triggered the most serious stand-off between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, with Moscow accusing the West of provocations and interference, including drone incursions and sabotage claims.
Zakharova dismissed Western accusations of airspace violations and cyber attacks as fabrications, saying they signal preparations for provocations and are meant to defend rising defence budgets.