MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. The Kremlin sees the main danger of the situation with the decision to launch strikes deep inside Russia with long-range missiles in the fact that only Western countries, not Ukraine, are capable of carrying out these strikes, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"The fact is that these strikes are not carried out by Ukraine, these strikes are carried out by those countries that give permission, because targeting, other maintenance is not done by Ukrainian servicemen, it is done by military specialists from these very Western countries," he said, recalling that Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously made such a statement.

"This totally just changes the modality of their (Western countries - TASS) involvement in the conflict," Peskov emphasized. He warned that "this is the danger and provocation of this situation."

This is how he commented on the statements of the US and other countries in connection with the decision to allow the use of long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia.

Earlier, The New York Times quoted sources as saying that US President Joe Biden had authorized strikes from Ukraine's territory deep into Russia with ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles. The French newspaper Le Figaro wrote that France and Britain had given similar authorization to use their SCALP and Storm Shadow missiles.

On September 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that a possible decision to use Western long-range weapons against Russian Federation would mean nothing less than direct participation of the United States and other NATO countries in the war in Ukraine. This would significantly change the very essence and nature of this conflict and the Russian Federation will make appropriate decisions based on the threats it will face, the Russian leader warned. Putin emphasized that Ukraine is unable to strike deep into Russian territory without Western help, as it needs intelligence from satellites and flight missions to do so.