Politics British Prime Minister: Do not want a conflict with Russia

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that the West's release of long-range weapons for attacks deep inside Russian territory would be tantamount to NATO involvement in a war.

Keystone-SDA

13.09.2024, 01:58

SDA

Great Britain does not want a conflict with Russia, said Starmer on his way to Washington. "Ukraine has a right to self-defense," he said, adding that the UK fully supported this right and was offering training opportunities in this context. "But we are not seeking conflict with Russia - that is not our intention in the slightest," the British Prime Minister emphasized.

Kiev has repeatedly requested that the UK and the USA allow the use of long-range missiles so that Ukraine can use them to attack targets in the Russian hinterland. This is also likely to be a topic at Starmer's meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday. "I want to make sure tomorrow that these discussions, the tactical discussions, are put into the right strategic context of the situation in Ukraine," Starmer emphasized.

According to official statements, the USA is limiting the use of its weapons against Russia to repelling the Russian offensive against the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The British government has not yet made any concrete statements on the question of what exactly it is allowing Ukraine to do with the weapons it has provided.

Kremlin leader Putin has interpreted a possible Ukrainian deployment of Western long-range precision weapons against targets deep inside Russian territory as NATO involvement in the war. "This will mean that the countries of NATO, the USA and the European countries will be fighting with Russia," he said in response to a question from a journalist in St. Petersburg. Putin went on to explain that this would change the nature of the war. "We will make appropriate decisions based on the threats we will face," he said, without giving details.

"Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine," Starmer continued. "Russia could end this conflict immediately."