Putin threatens to arm enemies from Western countries that provide military support to Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western countries that they are taking a “very serious and dangerous step” by supplying weapons to Ukraine, which could result in Moscow giving military aid to those nations’ enemies.

Ukraine has relied heavily on weapons supplied by Western allies to defeat Russian forces since Putin’s full-scale invasion began more than two years ago. And last week, US President Joe Biden for the first time gave Kiev permission to use American munitions to carry out limited strikes inside Russian territory, after several European countries removed restrictions on how the weapons they supply can be used.

“Supplying weapons to a conflict zone is always a bad thing,” Putin told editors of international news agencies on the sidelines of the annual economic forum in St. Petersburg on Wednesday (5). “Especially if this is linked to the fact that those who supply them are not only delivering weapons, but also handling them.”

Putin also warned that Russia could retaliate if Western countries were found to be directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine.

“In the end, if we see that these countries become involved in a war against us, what they are doing makes them directly involved in a war against the Russian Federation, we have the right to act in the same way,” he said. “Overall, this leads to some serious problems.”

And he raised the prospect of retaliatory action, asking why Russia “does not have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to regions of the world where there will be attacks on the sensitive installations of the countries that are doing this against Russia?” .

The Ukrainian military has begun using US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems to hit Russian air defense systems, weapons depots and other military targets on Russian territory, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament told CNN on Wednesday (5).

Yehor Cherniev, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, said American weapons allowed them to “significantly reduce the bombardment of Kharkiv by Russian S-300 missiles.”

In his comments on Wednesday, Putin said Russia would improve air defense systems to destroy incoming missiles.

He also singled out Berlin for criticism, following comments last week from the leaders of France and Germany that Ukraine should be allowed to use its weapons against targets inside Russia from which Moscow attacks Ukraine.

The appearance of German tanks in Ukraine resulted in an “ethical shock” in Russia, where the attitude towards Germany had previously been “very good”, Putin said.

“Now, when they say that a few more missiles will appear that will hit targets on Russian territory, this, of course, is ultimately destroying Russian-German relations,” he added.

Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on May 28, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Ukraine was authorized to defend itself as long as it respected the conditions given by the countries that supplied the weapons – including the United States. – and international law.

“Ukraine has every possibility, under international law, for what it is doing. This has to be said explicitly,” said Scholz. “I find it strange when some people argue that you shouldn’t be allowed to defend yourself and take appropriate action to do so.”

Ukraine appealed for months to Washington to allow it to attack targets on Russian soil with US weapons, while Moscow launched a brutal air and ground attack on Kharkiv, knowing that its troops could retreat to Russian soil to regroup and that its weapons depots could not be destroyed with Western weapons.

The US remains steadfast in not allowing Ukraine to use the most formidable ammunition given to it to fire at Russia: the long-range missiles known as ATACMS, which can hit targets 300 kilometers away.

Instead, Ukraine can only deploy short-range missiles known as GMLRS, which have a range of about 70 kilometers.