Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he could send long-range weapons to “regions around the world” wanting to strike Western targets after the US and its allies authorized Ukrainian strikes with their arms on Russian soil.
Speaking to international journalists in St. Petersburg, Putin said the new firing agreement between Kyiv and major North Atlantic Treaty Organization members indicated the alliance’s “direct involvement in the war against the Russian Federation.”
Moscow reserves “the right to act the same way,” he added.
“If they consider it possible to supply such weapons to the combat zone to launch strikes on our territory and create problems for us, why don’t we have the right to supply weapons of the same class to some regions of the world where they can be used to launch strikes on sensitive facilities of the countries that do it to Russia?” he said.
Putin said this response could be “asymmetric” but did not say which organizations or governments could receive such weapons from the Kremlin.
He claimed without evidence that Western nations supplying long-range arms to Ukraine were also deploying personnel to direct and aim munitions fired by said weapons. The US has said it doesn’t keep track of specific targets hit by Ukraine.
“We’re just not in a position on a day-to-day basis of knowing exactly what the Ukrainians are firing at what,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday. “It’s certainly at a tactical level.”
Putin’s comments came just days after Washington and Berlin reversed their long-standing policies and allowed Kyiv to launch strikes with American and German weapons. Other major allies supplying Ukraine, including the UK and France, had already authorized such strikes.
But President Joe Biden has only permitted Ukraine to fire on military targets in Russian regions bordering the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
Russian forces early last month launched a renewed assault on Kharkiv, and Ukraine has said that it knew the Kremlin was massing gear and troops in nearby Belgorod but couldn’t do anything about it due to targeting restrictions.
Apart from the area restrictions, the US has also prohibited Ukraine from launching ATACMS missiles on Russian soil.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Europe and the US have supplied more than 95% of all military aid to Ukraine since the war began.
The US sent Ukraine about $47 billion in military aid between February 2022 and February 2024, per the Kiel Institute.
A new package initially delayed by Congress this year contained about $25 billion more in equipment and another $17 billion in other funding for other military purposes, per a tally by the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
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