Russian President Vladimir Putin said allowing Ukraine to use long-range precision weapons to strike targets deep inside Russian territory would mean NATO entering the war.
Putin warned that he would see such a move as a sign that NATO countries, including the US and European countries, are fighting with Russia, which would change the nature of the war.
“We will make appropriate decisions based on the threats we are exposed to,” he said in response to a question from a journalist in St. Petersburg, without providing further details.
Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, claiming Russia was threatened by Kiev’s ambition to join NATO.
Although Ukraine is heavily dependent on Western support in fending off Moscow’s forces, Western countries insist that they – and NATO – are not at war with Russia and that they pose no threat.
However, Kiev has repeatedly called on the US and Britain to allow Ukrainian forces to use long-range missiles deep inside Russian territory to disrupt Russian logistics and attack military airfields far behind the front lines.
So far, the US has only given Kiev permission to use its munitions to attack Russian territory if the targets are just across the border from the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The British government has not yet made any statements about what exactly Ukraine will do with the weapons supplied.