The White House on Tuesday reiterated its opposition to attacks by Ukraine inside of Russia after a drone attack in Moscow damaged buildings in the Russian capital.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration is still gathering information about what took place in Moscow to gain more clarity on the situation. Russian officials blamed Ukraine for a Tuesday morning drone attack, which followed the latest round of airstrikes launched against Ukrainian cities this month.
“We have said this before, we do not support attacks inside of Russia. We’ve been very clear about that,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “We have been focused on providing Ukraine… with the equipment and training they need to retake their own sovereign territory, and that’s exactly what we’ve done for this past more than a year now.”
Asked if Ukraine risked losing the moral high-ground in its battle against Russia if it launched attacks inside of the Russian border, Jean-Pierre said she would not weigh in on hypotheticals, but that the administration does not support the use of U.S.-made equipment being used for attacks inside of Russia.
“We have been clear not just publicly but privately with the Ukrainians,” Jean-Pierre said.
The Russian defense ministry said in a post on Telegram that all eight of the drones were intercepted, including five that were shot down and three others whose systems were jammed, causing them to go off course. The defense ministry also called the drones a “terrorist attack” by the “Kyiv regime.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview with NBC News that Ukraine “has nothing directly to do” with the attacks on Moscow, adding he was “pleased to observe and predict an increase in the number of attacks.”
Russian forces launched a drone attack on Kyiv on Saturday night that left at least one person dead. Ukraine was reportedly able to shoot down 52 out of the 54 drones launched on its capital during the attack.
That attack in Kyiv was the latest offensive by Russia on a Ukrainian city since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in support for Ukraine militarily and economically in the roughly 15 months since.
Source: The Hill
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