NEW YORK, November 18. /TASS/. The United States is at war with Russia now that US President Joe Biden has authorized using ATACMS missiles for strikes against Russian territory, former US intelligence officer and UN inspector Scott Ritter has said.

"The US is now at war with Russia," he wrote on X.

According to Ritter, the United States "is a direct party to the invasion and occupation of Russian soil," because it helped Kiev plan its incursion into the Kursk Region.

Earlier, The New York Times reported, citing US officials, that Biden has allowed Ukraine to use US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, to strike inside Russia. France’s Le Figaro reported that Paris and London followed Biden’s lead and also allowed to use their SCALP and Storm Shadow missiles, respectively, for strikes inside Russia, even as there has been no official confirmation from either the US, France or Britain yet.

Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), warned that the use of US missiles for strikes inside Russia will inevitably lead to major escalation.