Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Sunday that Moscow would strike new targets if the West supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine, judging that the current arms deliveries were aimed at “prolonging the conflict”.
If long-range missiles are delivered to Ukraine, “then we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our weapons (…) to hit sites that we have not targeted so far”, Mr. Putin, according to excerpts from an interview to be published Sunday evening on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
He did not define the range from which Moscow would react or specify which targets could be targeted.
These statements come a few days after the United States announced its decision to deliver to Ukraine Himars (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) multiple rocket launchers with a range of about 80 km.
Military experts point out that this range is slightly greater than that of similar Russian systems, which would allow Kyiv forces to strike enemy artillery while remaining out of reach.
US President Joe Biden, however, said on Monday that he ruled out delivering long-range rocket launcher systems to Ukraine that could reach Russia, despite Kyiv’s repeated requests for such weapons.
Putin said there was “nothing new” in the US weapons supplied to Kyiv so far, adding that Ukrainian forces already had “similar Soviet or Russian-made systems, such as Grads, the Smerches or the Ouragans”.
The range of the projectiles “does not depend on the system itself, but on the missiles that are used,” Putin continued. “What we hear and understand today is that these are (for the American Himars) missiles with a range of 45 to 70 km,” he added.
Mr. Putin considered that Western arms deliveries to Ukraine had “only one objective: to prolong the armed conflict as long as possible”.