Russia Implicitly Threatens Europe About French Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine

  |  
Jul 12, 2023

After French President Emmanuel Macron announced on July 11, 2023 that SCALP long-range cruise missiles would be sent to Ukraine, Russian authorities said that severe consequences will befall France for its heightened participation in the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. 

Per a report by AFP, the first batch of SCALP missiles have already been sent to Ukraine. 

“The first missiles had been delivered when the president announced it,” a source said to the publication while in attendance at the NATO summit in Vilnius.  SCAL is the longest range weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal of foreign-supplied arms. 

Some reports claim that the missile has a 290 km or more operational range, but this could be modified depending on the recipient. Russia quickly blasted the French decision as “erroneous” and said that “it remains to be clarified and found out exactly what (effective casualty) radius we are talking about,” per a statement from Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“This, from our point of view, is an erroneous decision, fraught with consequences for the Ukrainian side. Because, naturally, this will force us to take countermeasures,” he said at a press briefing. He emphasized that for Ukraine the missile deployment “only aggravates its fate.”

“These decisions (to supply heavier weapons) cannot, are not able to turn the course of the ‘special military operation’. They can only aggravate the fate of the Ukrainian, Kyiv regime,” Peskov asserted. 

With respect to efforts by Western foreign policy decision-makers to bring Ukraine into the NATO fold, Peskov said that it could endanger European security interests in the region. 

“This really conceals great dangers, and those who will make this decision have to realize that,” he noted.

Indeed, further military aid sent to Ukraine will do nothing to change the ultimate outcome of this conflict. Russia enjoys clear escalatory dominance in this theater and treats this conflict as existential in nature. 

More military aid sent to Ukraine will only compel Russia to pursue more maximalist aims in Ukraine that could see the entire state be turned into a weakened rump entity. If we want to have Ukraine remain intact, the West must end its proxy war against Russia. 

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