Francis Tuschek, Staff Writer
US President Joe Biden did “a very stupid thing” by allowing the Ukrainian military to use American missiles for strikes deep behind Russia’s borders, President-elect Donald Trump has said.
Biden gave Ukraine permission to use American-provided ATACMS missiles to attack targets in internationally-recognized Russian territory las month, knowing the incoming president would oppose such a move. Kiev’s forces have since carried out multiple strikes using the missiles, bombarding a military airfield near the southern city of Taganrog last week. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, two of six missiles fired by Kiev’s forces were intercepted by air defense, while the remainder were diverted using electronic warfare.
“I don’t think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia,” Trump told reporters during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday. “I don’t think that should have been allowed. Not when there’s a possibility… and certainly not just weeks before I take over, why would they do that without asking me what I thought?”
“I thought it was a very stupid thing to do,” he continued, adding that he “might” rescind the authorization once he takes office next month.
Trump has repeatedly accused Biden of dragging the US into open war with Russia, and Monday’s comments marked the second time in a week that he condemned the president’s decision to authorize long-range ATACMS strikes.
“The most dangerous thing right now,” he told Time Magazine on Thursday, is the fact that “[Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky has decided, with the approval of, I assume, the president, to start shooting missiles into Russia.”
“I think that is a major escalation. I think it is a foolish decision,” he stressed.
Russia considers such strikes a major escalation, as these weapons cannot be fired “without the direct involvement of military experts from the manufacturing nations,” Russian President Vladimir Putin noted in a speech last month. Russia responded to the first such strike – on a military facility in Bryansk Region – by using a newly-developed Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile to rain multiple warheads down on a Ukrainian military industrial facility in the city of Dnepr.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said that the strike on Taganrog will also be met with an appropriate response.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow agrees with Trump’s position on the strikes being dangerous, and that “it is obvious that Trump understands what exactly is escalating the situation around the conflict.”
Trump has repeatedly promised to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of taking office, a claim that both Kiev and Moscow have cast doubt on. During Monday’s press conference, the incoming president acknowledged that resolving “the Russia-Ukraine situation” might prove “more difficult” than ending the conflict in the Middle East.