MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. Should NATO decide to permit Kiev to carry out strikes deep into Russian territory, Moscow will view that as the alliance entering into direct conflict with Russia, and the West will receive a "devastating" response, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The diplomat recalled a British media report about how UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron intended to try to talk US head of state Joe Biden into allowing Kiev to use Storm Shadow missiles for strikes deep inside Russia. London is reportedly hoping that the White House allows this prior to Donald Trump taking office.

"If the Kiev regime receives permission to carry out the abovementioned attacks, we will consider it as NATO countries de facto entering into direct armed conflict with Russia. This will change the essence of the conflict, its nature. The response to the use of Western long-range systems to attack the territory of our country will be inevitable and devastating for them," the spokeswoman said at a briefing.

According to her, Ukrainian social media accounts are meanwhile speculating that the Zelensky regime plans to present the received Western missiles as Ukrainian, changing the labels to use the weapons to attack Russia.

"This is nothing but bloody deceit," Zakharova pointed out. "This sounds exactly like something Zelensky and his gang would do. But we understand perfectly well that this is impossible to implement without his curators’ permission," she said.

"We would like to remind Washington, London, Paris, and Brussels that they are playing with fire," the diplomat emphasized. "All the abovementioned facts once again prove the imporatnce of the special military operation, aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine, elimination of all threats emanating from its territory."