Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if NATO allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets on Russian territory, it would mean it would go to war with Russia.
“If this decision is made, it will mean nothing but the direct participation of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine (…) it will mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries are fighting against Russia,” Putin told state television after speaking at a cultural forum in St. Petersburg.
Putin stressed that this decision would change “the very nature of the conflict,” hinting that it would no longer be a war between the Russian and Ukrainian armies. “If this is the case (…), we will make the corresponding decisions based on the threats they create against us,” he said.
He stressed that in reality, NATO does not allow kyiv to use these long-range missiles, whether ATCAMS or Storm Shadow, since the Ukrainian military does not have the technical capacity to do so. Putin said, relying on the supposed opinion of Russian and Western experts, that these missiles can be launched against Russian territory only with the help of intelligence data from American satellites or European Union countries, because Ukraine lacks them. “And the most important thing is that in fact, air missions can only be determined by the military of NATO countries,” he said.
This is not the first time Putin has attacked Ukraine’s allies for their military support to the country in order to defend itself against the invasion of his troops. Various experts believe that the Kremlin has already repeatedly invoked threats to instill fear among decision-makers and influence Western public opinion.
Last May, the Kremlin leader already used the same argument against the use of Western weapons against targets located on Russian territory. He then warned European countries of “serious consequences”, alluding to the fact that, normally, “these are states with small but densely populated territories.”
In this regard, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assured that the West had already given Ukraine permission “a long time ago” to attack Russian territory with long-range missiles. Lavrov called the visit to Kiev on Wednesday of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who reportedly discussed these issues with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a “staged” visit.
“Every day the number of (Ukrainian) attacks on civilian targets and shootings at civilians is increasing significantly. (…) Western military specialists literally manually coordinate attacks with high-precision weapons,” he said.
He also accused NATO of providing Kiev with data from its intelligence satellites, which are used to “strike targets inside Russian territory,” which include energy and industrial infrastructure, but also homes, schools and hospitals.
During their visit to kyiv, Blinken and Lammy stressed that the authorization to use long-range missiles will be discussed by their respective heads of state at the meeting they will both hold tomorrow Friday in Washington. “It was (Russian President Vladimir) Putin who escalated (the situation) this week with the shipment of ballistic missiles from Iran,” Lammy said.
