The Kremlin has accused the United States of waging a proxy war against Russia after Washington stepped up military support for Ukraine and received President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a historic visit.
Zelensky was greeted like a hero on his lightning trip to Washington on Wednesday. His US colleague Joe Biden pledged to provide Kiev with $1.8 billion worth of military equipment, including the highly coveted Patriot missile defense system.
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that the latest US support package — which is on top of the roughly $50 billion sent to Ukraine already this year as Europe’s biggest land conflict since World War II drags on — would not help end the more than 300 days of conflict.
“This is not conducive to a quick agreement, quite the opposite. And that cannot prevent the Russian Federation from achieving its objectives during the special military operation,” said Peskov, using Moscow’s own name for his offensive.
Peskov added that during Zelensky’s visit, there were no calls for peace or signs of willingness to “listen to Russia’s concerns,” proving that the US was determined to wage a proxy war with Russia “down to the last Ukrainian.”
His remarks came as Russian news agencies reported that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had visited fighting army units in Ukraine. The reports did not specify where the visit took place.
Advanced air defense system
Zelenskyy’s visit was his first trip abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Prior to a joint session of Congress, the Ukrainian leader held a meeting with Biden in the White House, during which the US president promised to bring the Patriot system to Kiev.
Ukraine had previously asked for the equipment, arguing that it would help bolster its air defenses in the face of continued Russian missile attacks on critical infrastructure and cities across the country, leaving millions of people without electricity or running water in a freezing winter.
The Patriot is one of the most advanced US air defense systems that can intercept threats such as aircraft and ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian troops will learn how to use it in Germany and it will be several months before they can use it on the battlefield.
Moscow has stated that once deployed, the Patriot system will be a legitimate target for Russian bombings.
CNN Breaking News Salam Khoder, who reported from Moscow, said it was clear that Russia did not expect “positive results” from the Ukrainian leader’s trip to the US.
Russia wants to strengthen its armed forces
To push ahead with Russia’s stalled invasion, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday backed a plan to increase the country’s armed forces by more than 30 percent to 1.5 million combat personnel.
At a meeting of top defense chiefs at the end of the year, Putin said the Russian armed forces would be equipped with modern weapons to ensure that they achieve all Moscow’s objectives — namely the capture of the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that Moscow had unilaterally annexed in September.
He added that there are no financial limits on the government’s provision of equipment and hardware, but said the army must learn from and solve the problems it has experienced on the battlefield so far.
In October, Russian forces withdrew in Kherson, one of the regions that Moscow, along with Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia, wants to completely seize, and intervened elsewhere as they failed to gain ground.
Russia’s war in Ukraine, the biggest in Europe since World War II, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions from their homes and reduced large swathes of the country to rubble.