US move to allow Ukraine to use its missiles is dangerous: Russia

A day after reports of the Joe Biden administration's move to allow Ukraine to fire American missiles into Russia surfaced, the Kremlin said that Moscow would respond to Washington's "reckless decision".

The Kremlin said that this decision taken by US President Joe Biden's office would pull the United States directly into the conflict.

For months now, Russia has been warning the West about how it would interpret a decision like such, saying it would increase the risk of a confrontation with the US-led NATO alliance.

Though there was no official confirmation, several media reports said that Biden authorized the use of American long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike further deep into Russia. One such report from The Associated Press said that this move was made to ease the restrictions placed on Ukraine to prevent the conflict from further spiralling.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pressing for months to ease the limitations for Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a statement, "This decision is reckless, dangerous, aimed at a qualitative change, a qualitative increase in the level of involvement of the United States in this conflict," Reuters reported.

‘…adding fuel to the fire’

Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had made Moscow's position clear when speaking in St Petersburg in September.

In September, Putin said that the West's approval for such an action would implicate "the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine" because NATO's military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and launching of the missiles.

"It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps to continue adding fuel to the fire and continue to provoke tension around this conflict," Peskov said.

The AP report had that US' decision came as thousands of North Korean troops have been sent into a region along Ukraine's northern border to help Russia regain ground. Ukraine reportedly intended on using these weapons as a response to the decision by North Korea to support Putin's invasion of Kyiv.

US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said Russia had escalated the conflict with "the deployment of a foreign country's forces on its own territory". Moscow's officials have said that they can deploy whatever forces they want within their country.

Meanwhile, Reuters cited a Russian official close to the Kremlin, who said that if the US' decision were true, it was an extremely provocative one for an outgoing administration but would not change the outcome of the war with Ukraine.

Russian lawmaker Maria Butina told the news agency, "Biden's administration is trying to escalate the situation to the maximum while they still have power and are still in office."

"I have a great hope that (Donald) Trump will overcome this decision if this has been made because they are seriously risking the start of World War Three, which is not in anybody's interest," Butina added.