- Putin warns the United States over the supply of missiles
- Russia will attack if longer-range missiles are supplied
- Russia breaks Western drones “like new ones” – Putin
LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin warned the United States in an interview on Sunday that Russia would attack new targets if the West supplied more powerful missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems .
The United States has ruled out sending its own or NATO forces to Ukraine, but Washington and its European allies have supplied weapons to Kyiv such as drones, Howitzer heavy artillery, Stinger anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles Javelin.
President Joe Biden said last week that Washington would supply Ukraine with M142 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, after receiving assurances from Kyiv that it would not be used to attack Russia. Read more
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Putin said weapons shipments were “nothing new” and did not change anything, but warned that there would be an answer if the United States supplied longer-range ammunition for HIMARS systems that have a maximum range of up to 300 km (185 miles) or more. .
If longer-range missiles are supplied, “we will attack those targets that we have not yet hit,” Putin told Rossiya-1 state television in an interview.
Putin said the range of Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS (LMT.N) systems depended on the ammunition supplied and that the range announced by the United States was about the same as the Soviet-made missile systems that Ukraine already had.
“This is nothing new. It doesn’t change anything in essence,” Putin said. He said the weapons only replaced those that Russia had destroyed.
Putin did not identify targets Russia would attack, but said the “commotion” over Western arms supplies was designed to prolong the conflict.
The U.S. Department of Defense said it was supplying Ukraine with four M142 HIMARS systems along with the guided multi-launch rocket system, which it said was more than 40 miles (64 km) long, twice as long. the range of the shells it supplied.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a video address announcing the start of the military operation in eastern Ukraine, in Moscow, Russia, in a still image taken from a video released on February 24, 2022 Russian Pool / Reuters TV via REUTERS
“TRANQUER NUTS”
The war in Ukraine, the largest land invasion in Europe since World War II, has shown the limits of Russia’s post-Soviet military power with heavy losses and several changes in strategy in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Speaking about drones delivered by Western states to Ukraine, Putin said Russia’s air defenses “were breaking them like nuts.” Dozens, he said, had been destroyed.
Although Russian officials have warned that the US decision to supply Ukraine with advanced rocket systems would aggravate the conflict, Putin said it would not lead to any fundamental changes on the battlefield.
The interview, which according to the Kremlin was recorded on June 3 in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, showed Putin sitting in front of a large wall map of Russia, Europe and Central Asia.
Asked about grain exports from Ukraine, he said the best solution would be to transport it through Belarus, but said they should lift sanctions on the Russian ally. Read more
Since the invasion of Russia on February 24, Ukraine’s grain shipments from its Black Sea ports have stalled and more than 20 million tons of grain are trapped in silos.
Putin and Russian officials do not use the words war or invasion, saying it is a “special military operation” aimed at preventing the persecution of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
Putin also sees it as a turning point in Russian history: a Moscow uprising against the United States, which he says has humiliated Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Ukraine says it is fighting for its survival against a Russian imperial-style landmass that has irrevocably divided the two largest East Slavic peoples and planted death and destruction in Europe’s second largest country by area.
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Reuters Report Written by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Frances Kerry
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