Vladimir Putin is warning the west against allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with western-made long-range missiles.
The US and UK with other allies are reportedly considering allowing Kyiv to strike military targets inside Russia with Storm Shadow missiles, which can hit targets up to 250 km from their launch site.
The Russian president said on Thursday that any western decision to let Kyiv use longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would put Nato “at war” with Moscow.
“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Putin said, adding that Russia would take “appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face”.
Russia’s fruitless fight in Ukraine remains ongoing while western allies have accused Iran and others of providing Moscow with ballistic missiles.
British prime minister, Keir Starmer, responded to Putin’s threats, telling reporters: “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away. Ukraine has the right to self-defence.”
Starmer, who’ll meet the US president, Joe Biden, in Washington on Friday, said the UK had provided “training and capability” to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion said he was visiting Biden because “there are obviously further discussions to be had about the nature of that capability”.
On Friday, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s message had clearly reached those it was intended for.
However Nato alliance figures have dismissed the threats as mere rhetoric and old hat. Peter Bátor, a defence policy expert recently served as Slovakia’s ambassador to Nato said:
“I think that the Russian regime, and especially the president, usually does this when he doesn’t know how to respond – it’s usually just rhetoric.
He added: “If we learn one lesson in this Russian aggression against Ukraine, it’s that we should not listen to Putin. He has been lying to us all the time.”
