On day 330 of war, nuclear threats if Russia defeated

Russia on Thursday warned that the Ukraine war will escalate if the West insists on providing Kyiv with longer-range weapons. Since the conflict broke out, the US has sent advanced and high-precision weapons and other military equipment to Ukraine to help the war-torn nation against Russian aggression.

The aid included multiple-launch High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. But Kyiv is pressing the West to send long-range weapons to strike far behind Russian lines. But the supply of long-range weapons is highly debated.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Thursday: “Potentially, this is extremely dangerous, it will mean bringing the conflict to a whole new level, which, of course, will not bode well from the point of view of global and pan-European security.”

In a separate statement, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned that the West’s continued support for Ukraine could lead to nuclear war.

In a post on Telegram, he wrote: “A nuclear power loss in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war. Nuclear powers have not lost major conflicts on which their fate depends.”

US officials said, Thursday, that Washington could announce that it will send long-range missiles with a range of over 100 miles to Ukraine this week. The decision might come on Friday as the NATO and other defense leaders are due to meet at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

In the key donor meeting, they are expected to talk about strategy and also support the West’s attempt to defeat Russia in Ukraine. The US might also send the ground-launched Small Diameter Bomb, which is a rocket-launched maneuverable glide bomb, with double the range of HIMARS missiles.

Biden administration is to approve a new aid package to Ukraine, worth more than $2 billion, which would likely include Stryker armoured vehicles for Kyiv, but not M1 Abrams tanks.