West ‘playing with fire’ – Lavrov

Ukraine’s demands for Western permission to strike deep into Russia with long-range Storm Shadow missiles are blackmail, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference on Tuesday.

Lavrov was asked to comment on recent media reports that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has stepped up appeals to his backers to lift all restrictions on the use of Western weapons against targets on Russian territory.

“This is blackmail, it is an attempt to create an impression that the West wants to avoid excessive escalation, but in fact this is a ruse,” Lavrov said, stressing “The West does not want to avoid escalation. The West is asking for trouble, to put it bluntly. I reckon that this is already obvious to everyone.” 

Lavrov further warned that the West would be embarking on a dangerous course if it expanded authorization for the use of its weapons.

“For a long time, we have been hearing these speculations about allowing the use of not only Storm Shadow, but also US long-range missiles…” 

“We will repeat that playing with fire – and they are like children playing with matches – is a very dangerous thing to do for grown-ups who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country,” Lavrov stated.

Ukraine has lobbied for months to use Storm Shadows against targets inside Russia. Kiev wants to launch the missiles at Russia’s heartland as “demonstration” attacks, The Guardian reported on Saturday. The outlet cited a senior Ukrainian official as saying Russia would consider negotiating only if it believed Ukraine had the ability “to threaten Moscow and St Petersburg.” 

Storm Shadow missiles were developed primarily by an Anglo-French collaboration and are now manufactured by European joint venture MBDA. At the same time, some of components are supplied by the US, which means the White House also has to agree to their use inside Russia. The Biden administration has so far refused to do so.

Zelensky has previously urged the West not to fear a potential escalation by Moscow, and has said that Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region proves that Moscow has no “red lines.”

The assault, which started on August 6, is the largest of its kind on Russian territory since hostilities erupted between Moscow and Kiev in 2022. According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, over 6,600 Ukrainian troops have been killed in the incursion and around 800 pieces of military hardware have been destroyed.

Russia has alleged that Ukrainian troops have been using Western-supplied weapons in the attack on Kursk Region – claims that have seemingly been supported by reports in the Western media.

Lavrov said last week that “Zelensky would never have decided [to attack Russian territory] if the United States had not instructed him to do this.”