Washington is considering providing Kyiv with guided missiles, and a Russian official: World War III is approaching

 A senior Russian official warned that World War III is approaching with the West supplying Ukraine with weapons, especially cluster weapons, at a time when the New York Times reported on US officials that the Biden administration is considering supplying Kyiv with long-range surface-to-surface missiles.

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said that the aid provided by Western countries to Ukraine with various weapons - the latest of which is cluster munitions - has reached a dead end, adding that "the Third World War is approaching," as he put it.

In a statement - on his Telegram account yesterday, Tuesday, about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit hosted by the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius - Medvedev indicated that the preliminary results were "consistent with Russia's previous expectations."

Medvedev (who is the former president of Russia) said that his country's special military operation in Ukraine will continue with the same objectives, one of which is the refusal to join what he described as a group of Kyiv Nazis into NATO, considering that this is impossible for Moscow.

Medvedev - who has repeatedly issued controversial statements and threats during the past period - indicated that there are reports that the city of Tokmak in Zaporizhia Province was bombed with cluster munitions, and said this means that "the time has come to reveal our arsenals of this inhuman weapon."

And last Friday, the United States announced its decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs for the first time since the start of the Russian war in February 2022; This angered Russia, which considered the move an escalation, while several European countries allied to Kyiv supported the American decision, even if they did not fully agree with it.

Medvedev's remarks come at a time when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also threatened to use cluster bombs if America supplied Ukrainian forces with them.

Shoigu said on Tuesday that his country refrained from using cluster munitions in the special military operation in Ukraine, although it possesses more effective cluster munitions than those of the Americans. He added that if the United States supplied Ukraine with cluster bombs, Moscow would have to use "similar" means of attack.

United States announced last week that it would provide Ukraine with internationally banned cluster munitions on a large scale for use in its counter-attack against Russian forces.

Washington and Kyiv accuse Russia of using cluster weapons during the war in Ukraine.

In conjunction with the exchange of statements and threats between Moscow and Kyiv, battles raged on the eastern and southern fronts of Ukraine, with Ukrainian forces continuing attempts to penetrate Russian military barriers as Kyiv's counterattack to restore its territory entered its second month.

On the other hand, Russian forces seek to repel repeated Ukrainian attacks, especially in the southern province of Zaporizhia.

According to Ukrainian forces, Russian forces launched a large-scale air attack with suicide marches targeting the capital, Kyiv, and cities in the north and south of the country.

The military administration in Kyiv said at dawn on Wednesday that the air defenses are dealing with suicide marches targeting the Ukrainian capital and its suburbs.

Ukrainian Air Force announced that its defenses shot down 26 Iranian-made Shahed drones out of 28 launched on Tuesday.

Source: Agencies