Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed President Joe Biden on Friday for purposely escalating the conflict in Ukraine to hand President-elect Donald Trump a more chaotic situation, the Russian News Agency reported.
Ukraine on Tuesday targeted a Russian weapons arsenal using lone-range U.S.-made ATACMS missiles. The next day, Biden agreed to provide Ukraine with anti-personnel land mines, additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear protective equipment.
Wednesday's announcement marked the 70th tranche of equipment to be provided by the U.S. Department of Defense to Ukraine since August 2021.
"As for what can be expected from Biden and his outgoing administration, well, the ATACMS supplies and allowing the British and French to use Storm Shadows and SCALPSs certainly have an element of trying to leave as negative a legacy as possible for the next administration," Lavrov said, according to the Russian News Agency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the use of such missiles crosses a line and marked a major escalation on the 1,000th day of the war. The Associated Press reported that Putin responded by formally lowering the country's threshold for use of nuclear weapons, allowing for a potential nuclear response by Russia, even to a conventional attack.
Russia on Thursday hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro using a unique model of hypersonic Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRMB) called the RS-26 Rubezh.
"It seems that this desire, let's say, to muck things up, can be seen in the current situation," Lavrov added, going on to say that undermining their successors is "typical of the Democrats" and accused former President Barack Obama of similarly attempting to "pull the same trick" on Trump before leaving office.
Obama expelled dozens of Russian diplomats with families and subjected them to difficult travel conditions, Lavrov said, adding that Obama's actions were seen as a way to "undermine" Trump's first few weeks in office.
Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov agreed with Lavrov, telling reporters Wednesday that the Biden administration's actions over the past week was in the interest of prolonging the war rather than seeking a diplomatic end.
"If you look at the trends of the outgoing U.S. administration, they are fully committed to continuing the war in Ukraine and are doing everything they can to do so," Peskov said.