MOSCOW — U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Kiev to deploy U.S. long-range missiles for strikes inside Russia would escalate the Ukrainian conflict, local media reported on Monday, citing the Kremlin.

In a major shift of his administration’s policy on the Ukraine crisis, Biden has authorized Kiev to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles, or the Army Tactical Missile System, to strike targets inside Russia, U.S. media reported on Sunday.

“If such a decision were indeed formulated and conveyed to the Kiev regime, then … this would mark a qualitatively new round of tensions and a qualitatively new situation in terms of U.S. involvement in this conflict,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He reiterated that Moscow’s stance on this issue should be clear to everyone.

“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington plans to take steps, as they have said, aimed at fueling the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict,” Peskov said.

XINHUA