By Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Antonov
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Moscow said on Wednesday that military options were “on the table” for its response to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and accused the West of being involved in them.
Russia also urged the United States and Britain to restrain Kyiv after the attacks, which Ukrainian officials have lauded as showing Kyiv can still fight back after more than three years of war.
British and U.S. officials have said they had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s attacks on Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at military bases over the weekend.
Ukraine also tried to blow up a rail and road link with Crimea on Tuesday, and Russia says Kyiv blew up a highway bridge over a passenger train late on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy said the risk of escalation from the war “going way up” after the attacks on the nuclear-capable bombers. A week earlier, Trump rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin over a fierce aerial attack on Ukraine.
“We urge London and Washington to react in such a way as to stop further escalation,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees relations with the U.S. and arms control, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
“All options are on the table,” Ryabkov said, when asked what Russia’s response to Ukraine’s attacks would be. “This is a question for our military.”
Russia and the U.S. together hold about 88% of all nuclear weapons.
Asked whether Russia thought the West was involved in the recent attacks, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the West supplied weapons, gave target coordinates, refused to condemn such attacks and actively incited them.
“These are several areas that prove the fact of the involvement, both direct and indirect, and the guilt of the West for the terrorist attacks that are taking place against civilians and civilian infrastructure facilities by the Kyiv regime,” Zakharova said.
Kyiv has not commented on the bridge attacks. Each side has accused the other of carrying out acts of terrorism during the conflict and each blames the other for a lack of progress at peace talks.
Trump was not informed in advance of Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russia, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday. A British government official said the government was not informed ahead of time.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Timothy Heritage)
