Vyacheslav Volodin has criticised Strasbourg’s call to “lift restrictions” on the use of Western weapons by Ukraine
The European Parliament is calling for nuclear war and should be dissolved, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said.
The Strasbourg-based body on Thursday adopted a resolution urging the EU to allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western-supplied weapons, as well as to continue funding kyiv’s war effort by seizing Russia’s frozen sovereign assets.
The resolution was adopted with 425 votes in favour, 131 against and 63 abstentions.
“What the European Parliament is calling for would lead to a world war with nuclear weapons,” Volodin said on Telegram.
“For your information: the flight time of a Sarmat missile to Strasbourg is three minutes and 20 seconds.”
Volodin also reminded MEPs that it was Russia that liberated “you and all of Europe” of Nazi Germany in World War II, which “It seems you have forgotten” and urged the body to “dissolve.”
The EP resolution stated that “Without lifting the current restrictions, Ukraine will not be able to fully exercise its right to self-defence” and regretted that the “Insufficient supplies of ammunition and restrictions on their use risk offsetting the impact of efforts made to date.”
Between sending arms, equipment, ammunition and financial aid to keep Ukraine alive, the EU has poured tens of billions of euros into kyiv’s war effort, while sanctioning Russia and seizing its assets at the Euroclear clearinghouse. Meanwhile, the bloc has insisted that none of this makes it a party to the conflict.
Limitations placed on some long-range weapons systems delivered to kyiv have served to maintain the narrative that the United States and its allies are not directly involved. Ukraine has repeatedly used these weapons to attack Russian territory, mostly against civilians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Ukraine does not actually have the capability to use long-range systems, but that targeting information and firing solutions require the involvement of NATO military personnel.
If the West “lift the restrictions”, Putin said: “This will mean nothing less than the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the conflict in Ukraine.” Russia will do it “making the right decisions” If that happens, the president added.
Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia repeated the message at the UN Security Council a day later, noting that “NATO would be directly involved in military action against a nuclear power. I don’t think I need to explain what the consequences of that would be.”
