Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed a raft of new threats, suggesting he could supply countries with weapons to strike Western targets and once again rattle his nuclear saber.
His warning – a response to the decision by the United States and its European allies to allow Ukraine to attack certain Russian territory with their weapons – was the latest threat from the Kremlin against more support for Kiev. But the Russian leader also insisted that Washington and its partners were wrong to think he would never use nuclear weapons.
In a briefing with the heads of international news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Wednesday, Putin was asked about last week’s steps to ease restrictions on Kiev in the wake of Moscow’s new attack on the Kharkov border area.
“If someone considers it possible to supply such weapons to a combat zone to strike our territory and create problems for us, why do we not have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world from which the attacks occur? will be carried out on sensitive objects of the countries that do this in relation to Russia?” said Putin. “That is, the answer can be symmetrical. We will think about it.”
“If we ultimately see that these countries become involved in a war against us, and this is their direct participation in the war against the Russian Federation, then we reserve the right to act in a similar manner,” he said. “But in general this is the path to very serious problems.”
It was not immediately clear to which “regions of the world” he would deliver such missiles.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to name the regions Putin had in mind. The Russian president said what he wanted to say and delivered a clear message that supplying weapons to attack inside Russia “cannot remain without consequences,” Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing.
Putin warned European NATO countries last week that the move to allow Ukraine to strike with their weapons inside Russia was playing with fire and could spark a global conflict.
Ukraine’s allies have so far been reluctant to use their weapons in Russia for fear of reprisals from Moscow. But the Kremlin’s new cross-border offensive increased pressure for change, with Kiev feeling handicapped and increasingly frustrated.
Ukraine announced earlier this week that it had carried out Russia’s first attack using Western weapons, apparently targeting an air defense system in the Belgorod border area.
When asked what could trigger a nuclear war and how close the world was to this risk, Putin said Russia is often accused of brandishing a “nuclear baton” but that it was not he who had raised the question.
But, he added, Russia can use “all the means at our disposal” in the event of a threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity, in accordance with the country’s nuclear doctrine, a framework that sets out the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons are defined.
“For some reason the West believes that Russia will never use it,” Putin said.
“You cannot take this lightly and superficially,” he added.
Putin has threatened to unleash Russia’s mighty nuclear arsenal since it became clear that Kiev’s Western allies would not abandon the war-ravaged country and would supply it with battlefield weapons, ultimately extending what Putin thought it would be a quick operation.
While Ukraine had to wait for new supplies of American weapons, the country managed to slow the Russian advance and bog down the northeastern ground offensive.
Kiev is now urging its allies to further relax restrictions on the use of their weapons so it can penetrate deeper into enemy territory. President Joe Biden will meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in France this week as the West marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
