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US president Joe Biden scolded a British journalist in a fiery exchange during a bilateral meeting with Sir Keir Starmer in Washington.
Mr Biden told Sky News US correspondent James Matthews to be quiet as he shouted a question about Vladimir Putin’s threat of war over Kyiv’s use of long-range missiles.
The US president and UK prime minister met at the White House on Friday amid reports they could allow Ukraine to launch Western missiles deep inside Russian territory.
When asked what he thought about Mr Putin’s warning that doing so would bring Russia into conflict with Nato, Mr Biden snapped back: “You be quiet while I speak, OK?”
The veteran reporter asked a second time what he made of Mr Putin’s remarks, to which Mr Biden again replied: “You have got to be quiet now I have got to make a speech, OK.”
Mr Zelensky has pleaded with allies for months to allow his military to fire long-range US ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles at Russian targets used to launch devastating daily attacks on Ukraine.
But in a message apparently timed for when Sir Keir and his entourage were over the Atlantic on their way to the US on Thursday, president Putin warned such a move would mean Russia would be “at war with Nato”.
The Russian president claimed the programming of Western missiles would have to be done by Nato military personnel – bringing the organisation into direct confrontation with the Kremlin.
On Thursday, it was reported US president Joe Biden was considering lifting restrictions on Kyiv using the British missiles inside Russia.
When asked about the possibility of long-range missiles being used inside Russia on Thursday, Mr Biden said his administration was “working that out now”.
Mr Putin told Russian state media on the same day: “It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia.
“If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face.”
Britain has supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of about 155 miles, three times the range of the missiles Ukraine has used up to now, but it cannot use them to fire at key targets inside Russia.
Meanwhile, the US has provided Ukraine with the longest-range version of ATACMS, a ballistic missile that can travel 190 miles.
But it has remained hesitant over allowing the firing of long-range missiles into Russia over fears Moscow could respond by deploying hypersonic nuclear weapons.
Source: independent.co.uk
