Stop the ‘madness’ – French party leader

The leader of France’s Patriots party, Florian Philippot, has called on Paris to stop the “total madness” and quit NATO. He was reacting to reports that US President Joe Biden had given Ukraine the green light to use US-supplied long-range missiles to attack targets inside Russia’s pre-2014 borders.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Washington has authorized Ukrainian forces to use ATACMS missiles to hit targets in Kursk Region. However, the White House has made no official statements.

“The deep state and its puppet Biden are attempting to trigger World War III before the arrival of [Donald] Trump in power,” the French politician wrote on Monday in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“We expected this kind of thing, their madness knows no bounds! We’re going to have to get the reasonable people to take over and get rid of NATO once and for all!” the politician added.

In a separate post later, the French party leader attached a video clip from a press briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova from last Wednesday. She stated that Western nations “continue to play with fire” and that if Kiev gets permission for the long-range strikes, this will be treated as “NATO de-facto entering a direct conflict with Russia.” Moscow’s response would be imminent and devastating, Zakharova has warned.

“Let’s stop this total madness! Peace and exit from NATO!” the party leader wrote.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has welcomed the reported development, issuing a thinly veiled threat in a video address on Sunday that “strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced.” 

“Missiles will speak for themselves. They certainly will,” Zelensky stated, without elaborating.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told media outlets on Monday that if confirmed, Biden’s reported decision would constitute a “qualitatively new round of tension.” 

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in September that since Ukrainian forces lack the necessary capabilities and knowledge to use Western-supplied long-range missiles, such permission would mean that “NATO countries [would] become directly involved in the military conflict.”