Ben Harnwell

And that's what he said.

He said that President Trump has departed from his talk about wanting to be a peacekeeper and he's made an open declaration of war and that Russia now has the pretext to respond to that accordingly.

I know that the US press is leading on the sanctions and to some extent on Medvedev's comments.

I don't think that's the big issue, Steve.

I think the big story really on Ukraine over the last 24 hours is the fact that President Trump has authorized the use by Zelensky of long-range missiles into Russia.

They were used yesterday to attack the military plant in Bryansk.

Now,

Trump has said no, POTUS has said no to supplying the Tomahawks.

And the actual missiles used on this occasion yesterday were the Shadow Storm missiles provided by the UK.

But the targeting was provided...

by US intelligence, and with President Trump's permission.

So I think that's the thing that people need to be watching for right now, rather than... I don't want to dismiss what Medvedev has said as simply being rhetoric, because, as I say, he's certainly one of President Putin's most trusted...

um political collaborators but i actually think that the issue here um and it's not towards disengagement steve it's not towards de-escalation i actually think that the real attention here ought to be on the fact that president trump because this is this is like a rubicon that you you pass right once you cross this you've crossed it president trump has authorized the use of long-distance

weapons, British made, British provided, but with US intelligence to attack a weapons munitions point, as I say, in Bryansk in the last 24 hours.

That is something I think a precedent that America will be building on, though I'm a thousand percent against that.

And it does give, I think, Russia the room, should it want to, to respond.

Well, if Denver would very kindly, I sent through just before coming on the show, my main source for today's reportage.

Thanks very much, Denver.

This is in the Wall Street Journal, which is a credible newspaper.

I don't trust everything the journal says in terms of its interpretation, but normally it's pinpoint facts.