Russia is now claiming it is an “obvious fact” that the US aided Ukraine with its surprise incursion earlier this month.
According to Russian state news outlet TASS, the deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov believes the States is “becoming more and more defiant” in the face of Moscow’s warnings.
Kyiv stunned the international community when it sent troops across the southern border and occupying 1,000 sq km of Russian land.
However, the US has repeatedly claimed it was not aware of the August 6 incursion in advance, and had no part in it.
Still, Moscow has renewed its threats to attack the West in response to the shock incursion.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Ryabkov said: “Washington’s escalatory path is becoming more and more defiant.”
He continued: “The impression is that [US] colleagues have discarded the remnants of common sense and believe that they can do anything.
“Their clients in Kyiv have a similar approach.
“The consequences [for the US] could be much harsher than those they are already experiencing, they know where and in what areas we are reacting in practical terms.”
He claimed that there would be “practical consequences of what is not an accusation but an obvious fact are observed.”
The Russian minister mysteriously added: “And our American colleagues know what we are talking about.”
Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin had told TASS earlier that Moscow does not believe Kyiv planned the offensive on its own, saying there is “no trust in such statements”.
But immediately after the incursion, the White House said it had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s plan to attack.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said they had contacted Kyiv to “get a little better understanding” of the Kursk offensive.
British tanks and US rockets were used by Ukrainian forces in its incursion into Kursk earlier this month, and Kyiv has confirmed that it used American missiles to take out bridges in the region.
The New York Times has also reported that the US and the UK gave Ukraine satellite imagery about Kursk after its troops managed to breach Russia’s borders for the first time since World War 2.
This information was intended to help Ukraine keep watch over Russian reinforcements in case of attack, or cut off their eventual withdrawal to Ukraine.
The UK’s defence secretary John Healey also said the UK should be “proud” British weapons were being used by Ukraine despite its incursion.
Writing in The Sunday Express two weeks ago, the minister said: “Providing international law is followed, that does not rule out operations inside Russia.”