US will not conduct 'preemptive strike’ against Russia: State Department
The United States has reiterated that Washington has no plan for a "preemptive strike" against Russian targets over the Ukraine conflict.
A US State Department spokesman said on Friday that American forces were not going to get directly involved in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
On Thursday, Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky had attempted to drag the US-led NATO forces into the Ukraine conflict, calling on the West to conduct “preventive strikes” against Russia so that Moscow knew what to expect should it resort to nuclear weapons.
When asked about the Ukrainian leader’s latest attempt to prompt the West to join its military forces with Ukraine in the fight against Russian troops, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said that the administration of US President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated that it has no intention of taking direct part in the conflict.
“As long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we are not going to get directly engaged in this conflict either by putting American troops to fight in Ukraine or attacking Russian forces,” he reiterated.
Patel insisted that Washington’s message on this matter was “very clear.”
Meanwhile, Russia condemned the Ukrainian leaders over his belligerency, saying the former comedian's destructive ideas, if actualized by others, could annihilate the world.
Ukraine's leader is “a monster, whose hands can destroy the planet,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned.
In regard to using nuclear weapons to defend itself against foreign aggression towards its lands, Russia has repeatedly pointed out that a nuclear war should never be fought.
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Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu made it clear during a speech at an international security conference in August that Moscow had “no need” to make use of its nuclear arsenal to achieve its political objectives in the conflict.
Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, saying it was aimed at “demilitarizing” the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics.
Back in 2014, the two republics broke away from Ukraine, refusing to recognize a Western-backed Ukrainian government there that had overthrown a democratically-elected Russia-friendly administration.
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