A Russian journalist claimed the United States declared war on the country during a state television broadcast.
Igor Korotchenko’s comments follow reports of the White House approving targeted strikes on Crimea.
The journalist claimed the U.S. crossed “every imaginable and unimaginable red line.”
Korotchenko’s remarks appear to follow a statement made by Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs Victoria Nuland who suggested Washington supprted Ukranian attacks on military targets on the peninsula and called for it to be demilitarized, Newsweek reported.
“After the U.S. crossed every imaginable and unimaginable red line, today the U.S. State Department actually announced that it was going to war with Russia,” Korotchenko said. “I assume that this is how we should interpret Nuland’s statement. There is no need for halftones. The U.S. is an enemy of Russia, a military adversary.”
Korotchenko is a very consistent hawk on Skabeeva's show – now he has taken up arms against the US and insists that Russia must answer. What answer, – he did not say. It's a pity. pic.twitter.com/zD0PX5S09Z
— TheKremlinYap (@TheKremlinYap) February 18, 2023
“If it expects massive missile strikes on Russian territory to be carried out with their help, but as if by someone else’s hands, then perhaps we can regard this as a casus belli (cause for war) and react accordingly,” Korotchenko continued, proposing Russian officials “give adequate, conceptual, doctrinal, and military responses to this audacious statement of the United States, and appropriate measures should be taken.”
“What kind of measures?” he added. “We shall see.”
The audio comes from Twitter account @TheKremlinYap which describes itself as providing “fresh videos of Russian propaganda shows,” further noting “Kremlin efforts to brainwash their population.”
Professor of War Studies at King’s College London Michael Clarke referred to the Russian journalist’s comments as “bluster.”
“In order to justify the fact that Russians are now well aware that the SMO (special military operation) is, in reality, a nasty little war that is getting worse, the sacrifices the Russian public will now have to make can only be justified if the Russian homeland itself is under threat,” Clarke said. “Hence the steady ramping up of Kremlin rhetoric to justify the sacrifices required.”
“A Ukrainian invasion into Crimea — legally 100 percent Ukrainian territory — would probably be a red line for (Vladimir) Putin himself though possibly not for others in the Russian leadership,” he continued, suggesting Russian officials may consider a line has been crossed. “Equally, attacks into Russian territory — against like ammunition dumps or military assembly areas in places like Belgorod or Kursk — would be legitimate in self-defense for Ukraine as far as international law is concerned, BUT if carried out by NATO-supplied weapons, would cross a perceptual red line for the Kremlin as it could then use that as clear evidence that this really IS a war of NATO against the Russian homeland.”
Though the United States has funded Ukraine’s efforts by providing weapons, ammunition, and other assistance since the war began last February, no official calls for the United States to enter the war have been made.
