Accusing Ukraine Of Planning Russian Attacks With HIMARS And Storm Shadow, Defense Minister Shoigu: The United States And Britain Will Be Dragged

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu chaired a coordination meeting of military officials. (Wikimedia Commons/mil.ru/Ministry of Defense)

JAKARTA - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused the Ukrainian military of planning to attack Russian territory, including Crimea, with HIMARS rockets and Storm Shadow missiles, at a meeting of the ministry council on Tuesday.

The system of the HIMARS rocket armament was supplied to Ukraine by the United States. Meanwhile, the Storm Shadow missile was supplied by the British Empire.

"According to our data, the leadership of the Ukrainian armed forces plans to carry out attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Crimea, with HIMARS rockets and Storm Shadow missiles," Defense Minister Shoigu said, quoted from TASS June 21.

The top military official stressed that the use of these weapons outside the special military operations zone would trigger direct attacks by Russia against decision-making centers in Ukraine, as well as apply the full involvement of the United States and Britain in this conflict.

"The use of these missiles outside our special military operations zone will mean that the United States and Britain will be completely dragged into conflict," Defense Minister Shoigu said.

Russia was known to annex the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea from Ukraine in 2014. However, Moscow considers it beyond the scope of "special military operations" in eastern and southern Ukraine.

On the occasion, Defense Minister Shoigu also revealed that Kyiv continued attacks in the south of Donetsk, including Zaporizhia, involving elite NATO-trained units and large numbers of weapons supplied by the West.

"Since June 4, Ukrainian soldiers have launched 263 attacks on Russian troop positions. Thanks to the competent and unconditional actions of our units, all the attacks were successfully pushed back and the enemy did not achieve its goals," he said.