Top Russian Official: US, NATO Supply Transports 'Legitimate Military Targets'

A top Russian official shockingly declared on Wednesday that the country would consider U.S. and NATO vehicle transports in Ukrainian territory as "legitimate military targets" and that any effort to impede Russian forces would be "harshly suppressed," Reuters reported.

The comments made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov during an interview on Tass serve as a major escalation in the nearly two-month-old Ukrainian conflict initiated by a Russian invasion in late February.

"We are warning that U.S.-NATO weapons transports across Ukrainian territory will be considered by us as legal military targets," Ryabkov told the state-owned news agency.

"We are making the Americans and other Westerners understand that attempts to slow down our special operation, to inflict maximum damage on Russian contingents and formations of the DPR and LPR [Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics] will be harshly suppressed," he added.

The White House has walked a fine line so far in its willingness to send advanced military aid to Ukraine, including breaking with fellow NATO allies on the extent of Western involvement.

Last month, the U.S. rejected an offer from Poland to transfer their MiG-29 fighter jets over to an American base for an eventual lend-lease to Ukraine, according to The Washington Post.

Poland had claimed it was "ready to deploy — immediately and free of charge — all their MiG-29 jets to the Ramstein Air Base and place them at the disposal of the government of the United States of America."

But in a March 8 statement, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration does "not believe Poland's proposal is a tenable one."

The U.S. has also rejected calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, warning it could lead to an all-out war between the West and Russia.

The president "continues to believe that a no-fly zone would be escalatory," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a press briefing last month.

"What we have the responsibility to do here is to assess what the impact is on the United States and our own national security," she argued. "A no-fly zone is escalatory and could promote a war with Russia, a major nuclear power."

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