The US And West Are Ready To Meet Ukraine's Air Defense Needs, The Deputy Minister Of Foreign Affairs Of Russia: We Tend The Danger Of Escalation In Their Capital City

The impact of Russian missile attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/National Police of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia will respond to the growing involvement of the West in the Ukraine conflict, although the direct conflict with NATO is not in Moscow's interest, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said.

That was said by Sergei Ryabkov on Tuesday, after Washington promised more military assistance for Kyiv.

"We warn and hope they realize the dangers of uncontrolled escalation in Washington and other Western capitals," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by RIA news agency Oct. 11.

Ukraine on Monday said the need to strengthen its air defenses, following Russia's biggest airstrike in cities since the start of the war in late February.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Biden on Monday and wrote on Telegram that air defense is "the number 1 priority in our defense cooperation".

"We will do everything we can to strengthen our armed forces. We will make battlefields more painful to the enemy," he said in a speech Monday evening.

Separately, US President Joe Biden vowed to provide advanced air defense systems, and the Pentagon said on September 27 it would begin shipping the National Surface-to-Udaral Missile System over the next two months or more.

On the same day, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Germany would send the first of the four IRIS-T SLM air defense systems to Ukraine in a few days.

"New missile fire in Kyiv and many other cities demonstrate how important it is to supply Ukraine with a rapid air defense system," Lambrecht said in a statement.

President Biden and the leaders of Group Seven will hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday to discuss their commitments to support Ukraine, the White House said.

Russia's ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said more Western aid to Ukraine increases the risk of a wider war.

"Such assistance, as well as providing intelligence, instructors, and combat guidelines to Kiev, leads to further escalation and increases the risk of clashes between Russia and NATO," Antonov told the media.

Russian missiles hit targets across Ukraine on Monday morning, killing 19 people and injuring 105, emergency service officials said. A total of 301 settlements in the areas of Kyiv, Lviv, Sumy, Ternopil and Khmelnytsky remained without electricity on Tuesday morning.

The density of dozens of cruise missiles fired from the air, land, and sea, was the largest batch of airstrikes to hit the front line, at least since gunfire on the first day of the war.

Ukrainian officials reported more attacks on Tuesday, including one in the southeastern city of Zaporizhia that killed at least one person.