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Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia might supply weapons to other nations to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies permitting Ukraine to use their arms against Russian territory.
Putin reiterated Moscow’s commitment to use nuclear weapons if it perceived a threat to its sovereignty.
The United States and Germany had recently authorised Ukraine to target certain locations on Russian soil with the long-range weapons they were providing to Kyiv.
A Western official and a U.S. senator on Thursday revealed that Ukraine had used U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia under new directives from President Joe Biden, which allowed American arms to be used for the specific purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Putin claimed that the use of some Western-supplied weapons involved military personnel from those countries controlling the missiles and selecting targets. Consequently, he said Moscow might take “asymmetrical” measures elsewhere in the world.
The U.S. military maintained that it does not control the missiles it provides to Ukraine or the targets.
“If they consider it feasible to deliver such weapons to the combat zone to launch strikes on our territory and create problems for us, why shouldn’t we have the right to supply weapons of the same type to regions where they can be used to launch strikes on sensitive facilities of the countries that target Russia?” he queried.
“We will consider it,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. When asked whether Russia could resort to using nuclear arms, Putin said the conditions for deploying that arsenal are clearly outlined in Moscow’s security doctrine.
Even Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons are much more powerful than those used by the U.S. against Japan in World War II, Putin noted.
During a three-hour session with senior leaders of international news agencies, Putin asserted that Russia-U.S. relations would remain unchanged regardless of whether Biden or Donald Trump wins the American presidential election in November.
“We will work with any president the American people elect,” Putin stated. “I say this sincerely, we don’t believe that the election will alter the Russian trajectory in American politics,” he added. “We don’t think so. We think nothing significant will happen.”
