Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Russian official says U.S. supplying Patriot missiles to Ukraine means direct involvement in conflict

KIEV/MOSCOW, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis:

The supply of Western weapons to Ukraine does not help resolve the conflict but prolongs the suffering of the Ukrainian people, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

If the United States delivers the Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to Ukraine, they will become legitimate targets of the Russian Armed Forces, Peskov told a daily briefing.

Russia regards the supply of the Patriot missile systems to Ukraine as "another significant step towards America's direct involvement in the conflict," said Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of Russia's upper parliament house, the Federation Council, on Thursday.

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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected Russian forces in the zone of the special military operation, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday on Telegram.

Shoigu checked the conditions for the deployment of personnel and military equipment at temporary deployment points and heard reports from unit commanders.

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U.S. President Joe Biden pledged visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday to offer military aid, mentioning in particular the Patriot surface-to-air missile battery he just approved for Ukraine in a new tranche of security assistance totaling 1.85 billion U.S. dollars.

The weapons package approved by Biden, according to a list from the Pentagon, also included "precision aerial munitions," which it didn't explain in detail regarding the type and quantity. According to U.S. media reports, they might be the so-called "Joint Direct Attack Munitions," which would transform the unguided "dumb" bombs into "smart" bombs by the addition of fins and a precision guidance system.

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Russian officials and a delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held a new round of consultations here on Thursday on cooperation in ensuring the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP).

Alexei Likhachev, director general of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi participated in the talks among other representatives, Rosatom said in a statement.

Both sides discussed approaches to the creation of a safety zone at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and noted the closeness of their positions on the creation of such a zone, said Rosatom, which operates the power station.