The Russian government is saying that if the United States starts supplying Ukraine with longer range missiles for its war effort, that it would represent a "red line" for Moscow.
These are destroyed and abandoned tanks seen by Reuters in the town of Izium, the major logistics hub recently retaken by Ukrainian troops. The "Z" symbol is used by Russian forces to identify themselves.
Russian forces in eastern Ukraine are digging in and fortifying their defenses, according to a Ukrainian regional official, who said it will be difficult for Ukrainian troops to repeat their recent rapid advances.
Speaking on Thursday (September 15), a spokesperson for Russia's foreign ministry said that if the U.S. did cross that red line and supply longer range rockets, that Washington would become "a direct party to the conflict" and that Russia, quote, "reserves the right to defend its territory."
The U.S. currently supplies Ukraine with rockets that can hit targets up to 50 miles away, and hasn't said publicly whether it will send rockets that can hit twice that range or more.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was back in Kyiv to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after a surprise visit to Izium a day earlier.
This is what he says Russian troops left behind:
"Our law enforcers are already receiving evidence of murder, torture, and abductions of people by the occupiers... And what we are seeing now in the Kharkiv region, is the evidence of genocide against Ukrainians."
Earlier this week Ukraine reported that at least a thousand residents of Izium had been killed in six months of fighting. Russia has long denied targeting civilians.
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