Russia warns Kyiv that there will be a military response if Ukraine carries out scheduled missile tests
The Head of the Russian Federal Agency for CIS Countries and International Humanitarian Cooperation, Konstanin Kosachev, warned Ukraine over conducting the missile tests in “Russian airspace”.
“If it comes to the point that we have to use military response, this will, of course, be a most horrible and unpleasant scenario, which all of us have to prevent,“ Kosachev stated at the International Conference of Scientific Research Centers entitled “Crisis of world order, not only a Russian problem .”
Kosachev stated that there have been no public statements from the western partners of Ukraine which could prevent Ukraine from taking this step. “The circumstances are such that the desire to support your friends leads to the escalation of the conflict,” the politician said.
“Eight years ago the leader of another country which was in conflict with Russia, I mean Georgia, decided to test our armed forces. And we all know how it ended. I hope Ukrainian officials remember it,” he said.
Previously, the Russian Defense Ministry submitted a note of protest to the Ukrainian Defense Attaché over Ukraine’s plans to conduct missile tests near the Crimea.
The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, recently stated that Kyiv was not planning on conducting missile tests in the Kerch Strait, noting that Russian airspace in the Black Sea ends in the middle of the strait.
"All the rest of the territory to the west of the Kerch Strait is the sovereign airspace of Ukraine", Turchynov emphasized, adding that Ukraine carries out missile tests within the legal boundaries of international commitments and agreements.
Ukraine is planning to conduct the missile tests on December 1-2.