Around 7 AM Washington DC time, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”
Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
On Tuesday night, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov warned Washington of serious consequences of a possible strike on Syria should the strike cause casualties among Russian citizens.
“Russia has warned U.S. representatives, both publicly and via corresponding channels, including military ones, about serious consequences that might follow possible strikes [on Syria], if Russian citizens are hurt in such strikes, accidentally or not,” Chizhov told Euronews.
According to the Russian diplomat, the United States’ strikes in retaliation for the Assad regime’s chemical attack that killed as many as 200, including children, in the town of Douma near Damascus, would be “a response to something that never happened,” since, according to the Kremlin, reports about the attack were “fake news.”
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin is not planning to call the leaders of the United States, Germany or France for the time being.
“No, they are not planned so far,” the Kremlin spokesman said, in response to a reporter’s question, adding that “such contacts are not in the plans.”
At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman hinted that there were contacts between less senior Russian officials and the counterparts in Washington, Berlin and Paris.
At 7:40 AM local time, President Trump tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?”
