US not encouraging or enabling Ukrainian operations inside Russia: WH
The US' NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications said that it is in not in the US' interests to escalate the war in Ukraine, including for the people of Russia.
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US does not encourage Ukraine to escalate: White House
White House NSCSCC John Kirby said on Sunday that the US has no interest in escalating the conflict in Ukraine.
"From the very beginning, we’ve talked about monitoring and being mindful of the risks of escalation of this [conflict] because that's not only not good for the Ukrainian people, it's not good for our interests," Kirby told ABC News, adding that the escalation of the crisis does not serve the interests of the Russian people.
"We are certainly not encouraging or enabling Ukrainian operations inside Russia," Kirby added, noting the US is continuing to provide Kiev with all the necessary support to "defend their territory" as well as to regain the regions lost by Russian annexation.
Some argue that this is another means of making the Ukraine conflict seem less of a proxy war.
On December 5, three Russian military airfields were struck by drones in the Saratov and Ryazan regions.
According to reports, the drones were Soviet-made Tu-141 Strizh UAVs.
According to Russia's Ministry of Defense, Russia's army managed to intercept the drones, but fallen fragments of the shells resulted in three soldiers killed and four wounded.
Three killed, four wounded in Ukrainian UAVs attack on Russian military airfields - DefMin spox Konashenkov pic.twitter.com/HPkUOdgZfD
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) December 7, 2022
Read more: Ukraine issues air raid warnings across multiple regions
Russia: NATO knew of Ukraine's attack on Russian military airfields
At the Vienna military security and arms control talks, on Thursday, Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of the Russian delegation noted that NATO had prior knowledge of the recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian military airfields in the Saratov and Ryazan region.
Gavrilov stated that "NATO was aware of the preparations for the latest Ukrainian attacks on the Russian military airfields," adding that "we gave them an immediate response with a massive strike on the military command and control system, defense complex facilities and related energy facilities in Ukraine."
The envoy also stressed that such responses will reoccur, without doubt, "every time if acts of Ukrainian terrorism continue."