AGENCIES

The Kremlin said yesterday that longer-range rockets reportedly included in an upcoming package of military aid from the United States to Ukraine would “escalate” the conflict but not change its course.

“This is a direct course to whipping up tension and to escalating the level (of fighting). But again, it won’t change the course of events,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, responding to a question about potential US supplies of missiles with long-range capabilities.

Peskov also told reporters that there were no plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold talks with US President Joe Biden.

The US package of military aid, worth $2.2 billion, is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.

In Washington, the United States said Russia was violating the New START nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries. Biden’s administration has been eager to preserve the treaty but ties with Moscow are the worst in decades due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of US-Russian nuclear arms control,” a State Department spokesperson said.

In Ukraine, security services searched the home of one of the country’s most prominent billionaires yesterday, moving against a figure once seen as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s sponsor in what the authorities called a war-time anti-corruption purge.

The action, days before a summit with the European Union, appears to reflect determination by Kyiv to demonstrate that it can be a steward of billions of dollars in Western aid and shed a reputation as one of the world’s most corrupt states.

Photographs circulating on social media appeared to show Ihor

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