The United States and other NATO countries intend to continue the war with Russia, which is fraught with serious consequences for them, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned.

The Kremlin spokesman drew the media’s attention to the escalation of the situation by NATO member countries and especially, the United States. He emphasized that these countries "themselves intend to continue the war" with Russia - "a war in the literal and figurative sense." - "This will, of course, will inevitably entail its consequences. It will ultimately be very harmful to the interests of those countries which have opted for the path of escalation," Peskov said.

In his opinion, NATO countries, primarily the United States, are consciously heading for a new round of tensions and provoking Ukraine to continue a senseless war with Russia. "The North Atlantic Alliance’s member-countries, the United States in particular, other European capitals in recent days and weeks were coming close to a new round of escalating tensions. They are doing this on purpose," the Kremlin spokesman stated. He noted that Moscow "hears quite a few bellicose statements."

"This is nothing but a policy of provoking a new level of tensions. We realize that this negative trend in their approach unfortunately persists. They provoke Ukraine in every possible way to continue this senseless war," Peskov stated.

He was commenting on numerous statements, including those by Washington, about Ukraine's ability to attack Russian territory with Western weapons.

Western statements

Earlier, NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with the British magazine The Economist, suggested that the alliance's members reconsider whether Ukraine should be able to carry out strikes with Western weapons against military facilities located on internationally recognized Russian territory. At the same time, at a session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the organization's secretary-general said that troops of the organization's member-countries should be absent from Ukraine’s soil and its skies. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to keep the alliance out of the conflict.

There is no unanimity among the Western countries that supply weapons to Ukraine regarding restrictions on their use. Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder has said the US was not assisting Kiev in using US weapons outside Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly noted that he rules out the possibility of supplying Kiev with Taurus cruise missiles, because Berlin would not be able to maintain control over target setting without sending German personnel to Ukraine, which, he said, was a line he did not want to cross. At the same time, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after his recent trip to Kiev intended to advise President Joe Biden to lift the ban on Ukraine's strikes with US weapons on Russian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on May 28 that representatives of NATO countries, when talking about strikes on Russia, should "be aware what they are playing with." He stated that Russia was closely following the discussion on this issue. In case the Ukrainian Armed Forces use long-range weapons, Moscow will have to decide again on creating a buffer zone, Putin said.

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President Emmanuel Macron's decision to approve Ukraine’s use of French weapons for strikes targeting the territory of Russia is another step toward Paris' full involvement in the conflict, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the parliamentary faction of France’s National Rally party, said in an interview with French radio broadcaster FranceInfo. "Following Macron's statements about sending in the [French] military, this announcement [to authorize strikes against Russian territory with Western weapons] is the latest move to fuel this conflict," she said. "I'm beginning to think that Macron is seeking France’s full-fledged participation in this war."

"I believe this would create an absolutely enormous danger to the safety of our countrymen and the integrity of our territory and I’m certainly against it," the French politician continued.

Le Pen said she was in support of supplying "defensive weapons" to Ukraine, but opposes French weapons being used for delivering strikes outside Ukrainian borders. She noted that this brings the outbreak of a new World War closer and she would not want to see France standing at "the frontlines of this conflict."

The conflict in Ukraine, she continued, cannot be resolved by military force, saying that a diplomatic resolution should be sought between the parties involved. What's more, Ukraine should be given the chance to come to these negotiations "in the most favorable position."

"The developments over there can be described as a bloodbath," Le Pen stated. "Do we all realize that victory cannot be achieved by military means and that we must make war impossible? Or are we going to continue, in fact, the Hundred Years' War, sending young men out there every day?" - "No one but the two main parties [to the conflict] can decide on this. However, a number of other countries can try again to bring them closer together, and France is no longer doing that. It is a shame that other countries are doing this, and not us," the politician noted.

On May 28, French President Macron spoke in favor of allowing Kiev to strike military facilities on Russian territory, those from which strikes on Ukraine are launched, using West’s weapons.

The French president said that France was only helping to defend Ukraine, "staying within the previous framework," and did not want an escalation. In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Macron's words were nothing new, a continuation of the rhetoric so often used by Western countries.

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Sources: News Agency - Media - Officials