 "NATO would be 'at war' if Ukraine uses long-range arms against Russia, warns Putin")
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the West letting Kyiv use longer-range weapons to strike Russian targets would mean NATO would be “at war” with Russia.
Putin spoke as US and UK top diplomats discussed easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, which Kyiv has been pressing for, more than two and a half years into Moscow’s offensive.
“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Putin told a state television reporter. “It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” he said, adding “If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the West on key military targets deep inside Russia.
Speaking in Kyiv alongside the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Blinken said the US had “from day one” been willing to adapt its policy as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been urging Western allies to not only allow their weapons to be used for strikes deep inside Russia but also supply Kyiv with more of the arms themselves.
Ukraine has long urged partners to allow it to fire Western weapons at targets far into enemy territory, and those calls have grown louder as Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian energy installations, other infrastructure and residential buildings intensify.
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