Russia outraged by Ukraine missile deal; kyiv vows to build more weapons | Russia-Ukraine war news

Last week, Russian officials issued conflicting statements on how Moscow would respond to attacks using Western weapons inside its territory and whether such attacks would occur.

Russian diplomats played up the now-familiar threat of a nuclear response.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS on Saturday that Ukraine’s Western allies had already approved deep strikes inside Russia.

“The decision (to allow kyiv to strike) has been made, all indulgences have been granted to kyiv’s clients,” he told TASS. “That is why we will respond brutally.”

U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had met the day before but did not issue any statement on whether they were giving Kiev authority to use U.S.-made Army Tactical Missiles (ATACM) or British-made Storm Shadow missiles to attack air and logistics bases 300 kilometers (185 miles) inside Russia.

No other Russian officials confirmed Ryabkov’s claims.

Asked whether he had obtained such permission on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: “No. So far, no.”

He also hinted that weapons with an even longer range of 500 kilometers (310 miles) might now be needed because Russia had withdrawn its fighter jets from front-line airfields within range of the longer-range weapons Ukraine currently possesses.

“We have waited too long,” Zelenskyy said.

The United States has given Ukraine permission to use its weapons across the border to conduct counter-battery fire. So far, there have been no reports of Ukraine using ATACM and Storm Shadow missiles to attack airfields or logistics facilities.

“This war will affect everyone”

There was also disagreement over what the Russian response would be.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Rossiya-24 television on Friday that a nuclear conflict could reach the United States.

“I continue to try to convey this thesis to them: Americans will not be able to sit idly by abroad. This war will affect the whole world,” he said, referring to a possible nuclear conflict on Friday.

That same day, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said deep strikes with Western weapons amounted to a war between NATO and Russia.

“Once the decision to lift the restrictions is actually made, it will mean that NATO countries will start a direct war against Russia right now,” he said.

This echoed the position expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 12.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s powerful National Security Council and Putin’s right-hand man, warned that Moscow’s “patience” is running out.

“Russia is showing patience. After all, it is obvious that a nuclear response is an extremely difficult decision with irreversible consequences,” he wrote on Twitter. Telegram channel on Saturday, but added that “all patience comes to an end.”

Ukraine struck deep into Russia’s interior on Tuesday night, but it used its own weapons.

Anonymous special forces sources told the government newspaper Suspilne that they had attacked a depot containing Iskander and Tochka-U ballistic missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and artillery ammunition in Toropets in Russia’s Tver region, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Images from the scene showed massive and widespread secondary detonations.

“You probably noticed that (Wednesday) was not a particularly good morning for Russia. This is due to the innovative products manufactured and developed in Ukraine,” Oleksandr Kamyshin, a Ukrainian presidential adviser on arms production, told Norwegian publication Nettavisen.

Ukraine recently unveiled the Palyanytsia, an unmanned missile whose range it has not disclosed.

“A year and a half ago we didn’t have that capability,” Kamyshin said. “Now we have a range of products that can reach the target of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) inside Russia.”

Ukraine vows to boost its defense industry

Ukraine has been aggressively building up its own defense industry this year after receiving what it considers disappointing amounts of Western ammunition and equipment for a counteroffensive that failed to achieve the desired results last year.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said at the Yalta European Strategy forum that kyiv’s defense production capacity will soon triple.

“Last year we planned our production capacities and determined how much we could jointly produce in the private and public sectors. Back then, our potential was $7 billion. By 2025, we can triple this figure,” Umerov said.

This was confirmed by Kamyshin, who until last month was the minister responsible for the defence industry, saying that under his leadership arms production had doubled and would triple by the end of 2024.

He also revealed that Ukraine is now producing its own 155mm artillery shells.

A shortage of shells has been plaguing Ukrainian defenders, and Ukraine has largely compensated by producing small, first-person-view drones this year, which have targeted Russian tanks and other vehicles with deadly precision.

Ukraine has also become an innovator in drone warfare, unveiling a flying flamethrowing “dragon” drone and a walking flamethrowing “dog” drone in recent weeks.

But what has perhaps had the biggest effect in blunting Russia’s superior firepower has been last month’s counterinvasion of Russia’s Kursk region, Zelenskyy said.

He told the Yalta European Strategy forum that in addition to preventing a Russian attempt to invade the Sumy region of northern Ukraine, it had diverted artillery from Donetsk, reducing the ratio of artillery fire near Pokrovsk from 12 to one to 2.5 to one.

He said he also diverted a significant number of Russian troops.

“In Kursk, the Russians have launched a rapid offensive. Between 60 and 70 thousand people want to show up. We know that there are already about 40 thousand,” he said.

An independent Ukrainian military observer, retired Colonel Konstantyn Mashovets, agreed, saying there were between 33,000 and 35,000 Russian troops in Kursk.

This includes not only reserves, but also elite units with combat capabilities. The last to be seen there was the 137th Airborne Regiment.

Both Zelenskyy and his commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, have recently credited the Kursk initiative with finally halting Russia’s advance toward Pokrovsk, which has been moving westward from Avdiivka since February.

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief believed that if Ukraine could keep up the fight until next summer, the Russian war effort would begin to run into shortages of equipment and personnel.

Ukrainian military leader Kyrylo Budanov believed that Russia’s arsenal of weapons inherited from Soviet times would be exhausted.

Some Western estimates confirm this.

Oryx, a Dutch open-source intelligence site, has documented a staggering loss rate — nearly 3,400 Russian tanks destroyed, abandoned or captured — and believes the real number is significantly higher.

But Russia is also capable of refurbishing the old Soviet machinery it has in storage, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. By its calculations, Russia’s tank production capacity is only 60 or 70 a year — roughly the same number that Ukraine destroys in three weeks. But the pace of refurbishment is high enough to keep Russia stockpiled with tanks “for another two or three years, and perhaps even longer,” according to its February calculations.

Staffing can be a more complicated issue.

Budanov pointed to the ever-increasing initial payments offered to attract volunteer fighters, now as high as $22,000, as evidence of this.

“During this period (in the summer of 2025), they will face a dilemma: either they announce mobilization, or somehow it is necessary to slightly reduce the intensity of hostilities, which for them could, in the end, be critical,” Budanov said of Russia at the recent European Strategy forum in Yalta.