FACT CHECK: North Korea supplies Russia with missiles to kill Ukrainians, accuses US of escalation

The Pentagon’s confirmation on April 24 that the U.S. secretly sent to Ukraine long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which can reach deep into Russian-occupied areas, sparked angry responses in Russia and North Korea.

President Joe Biden approved the transfer in March as part of a $300 million aid package to Ukraine, with Congress stalled on passing the roughly $60-billion-plus security package, ratified later in April.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden’s decision to provide those missiles came “on the back of Russia receiving and using [North Korean] long-range ballistic missiles and renewing and escalating its attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.”

Washington warned Moscow last year that if Russia used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, the U.S. would provide Kyiv with the same capability, The Associated Press reported, citing an anonymous U.S. official.

Both Russia and North Korea denied the arrangement, but a growing body of evidence confirms North Korea has provided Russia with long-range missiles, and Moscow used them to attack Ukraine, killing and wounding dozens of civilians.

Yet responding to the U.S. supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine, both Russia and North Korea accused Washington of “aggression.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to expand “the sanitary zone” — the term Moscow uses for Ukrainian territory that is not under Russian occupation, and a “legitimate military target” for Russian attacks. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov amplified the threat, promising Ukraine “more victims” and “more destruction.”

In a statement, the North Korean Ministry of National Defense implied direct U.S. participation in the war, calling the government in Kyiv “the Zelenskyy puppet clique,” and promised victory to “the heroic Russian army and people.”

“The U.S. administration, which had kept itself aloof from the delivery of long-range missiles, saying that it did not encourage Ukraine's strike on the Russian mainland, has betrayed more clearly its true colors as a harasser of peace aggravating war by providing Ukraine with such missiles. This time it has adopted such a mean policy as offering even long-range missiles for attacking the Russian territory to their lackeys,” the ministry said in a statement on April 28.

That is false.

Washington has made clear that Kyiv cannot use the missiles to strike within Russian territory. #factcheck #voanews

https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-che...

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