The United States should move quickly to resume substantive talks with Russia on a settlement to the conflict in Ukraine, a columnist for The American Conservative has argued.

The article says Washington would be wise to persuade Kiev and the Baltic states not to allow drone and missile launches from NATO territory. The author also argues that serious peace negotiations should be restarted soon.

According to the columnist, further Russian retaliatory strikes on Kiev could put NATO officers at risk. Such a scenario, the article warns, could trigger a direct confrontation between the alliance and Russia and eventually draw the United States into the conflict.

Earlier, State Duma Defense Committee member Andrey Kolesnik told Lenta.ru that Russia would strike facilities from which Western countries could shoot down Russian drones and missiles over Ukraine. He was commenting on a call by Andrey Melnik, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN, for Western states to intercept Russian Armed Forces drones and missiles in Ukrainian airspace.

On Tuesday, June 2, the Russian Defense Ministry reported a new large-scale retaliatory strike over the terrorist attack in the LNR and other attacks on civilian infrastructure in Russia. According to the ministry, Russian forces hit military-industrial enterprises in four Ukrainian regions, as well as in Kiev and the Zaporozhye region.