Ukraine's Long-range Attack On Russia With US Missiles Could Trigger World War

Ukrainian air defense illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministry of Defense of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Washington's decision to allow Kyiv to strike Russia with long-range missiles has escalated the conflict in Ukraine and could lead to a Third World War, senior Russian lawmakers said on Sunday.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has reportedly allowed the use of their homemade weapons to attack Russian territory, two US officials and a source familiar with the decision said on Sunday.

"The West has decided at an escalation level in such a way that it could end with Ukraine completely destroyed in the morning," said Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, on the Telegram messaging app. November 18.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Dzhabarov, the first deputy head of the Russia upper house international affairs committee, said Moscow's response would soon be made.

"This is a very big step towards the start of the Third World War," state news agency TASS quoted Dzhabarov as saying.

Earlier, President Vladimir Putin said in September the West would fight Russia directly if the country allowed Ukraine to attack Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would change the nature and scope of the conflict.

Russia will be forced to take what President Putin calls a "right decision" based on the new threat.

Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the lower house Duma Negara, said US authorization for the attack by Kyiv on Russia with US ATACMS tactical missiles would lead to the hardest response, the Russian news agency reported.

"Attacks with US missiles deep into Russian territory will inevitably lead to serious escalation, which threatens to have far more serious consequences," the TASS news agency quoted Slutsky as saying.