Moscow warns Washington not to authorize attacks on Russian territory

Moscow has warned Washington not to allow Ukraine to launch attacks with US weapons on Russian territory.

"This stance is absolutely irresponsible, the position is absolutely dangerous with its consequences," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television on Thursday.

He was commenting on a report in US newspaper the New York Times, according to which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in favour of such strikes against Russian territory and wants to persuade President Joe Biden to lift the restrictions.

In Washington, but also in some European capitals, an escalation is constantly being provoked, said Peskov. There are "hotheads in the United States who see it as their job to keep adding fuel to the fire."

"It is now obvious to all experts that no weapons are capable of somehow turning the tide in the zone of the special military operation," said the close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, using Russia's term for the war in Ukraine.

On the contrary, the weapons deliveries are prolonging the war for the Ukrainians, Peskov said.

The US State Department would neither confirm nor deny the New York Times report on Thursday.

Blinken had said during his visit to Kiev last week that the US was committed to helping Ukraine win the war.

"We have not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine, but ultimately Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it’s going to conduct this war, a war it’s conducting in defense of its freedom, of its sovereignty, of its territorial integrity," he said in the Ukrainian capital.

"And we will continue to back Ukraine with the equipment that it needs to succeed, that it needs to win."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is demanding that the US and other Western allies allow his country to use the weapons supplied for strikes against Russia. So far, the country has mainly used weapons from its own production for this purpose.