Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed a slew of new threats, suggesting he could provide arms to countries to hit Western targets and rattling his nuclear saber yet again.
His warning which comes as a response to the decision by the United States and its European allies to allow Ukraine to attack some of Russian territories using their weapons — was the latest Kremlin threat against greater support for Kyiv. The Russian leader also insisted that Washington and its partners were wrong to assume he would never use nuclear weapons.
In response, President Joe Biden said Thursday that Putin was “a dictator” who had “concerned me for 40 years” and was struggling to balance domestic pressures with the demands of his military campaign.
But Biden also emphasized the U.S. was not allowing Ukraine to use American weapons to strike deep inside Russia and target Moscow or the Kremlin itself.
The Russian leader’s latest threats came Wednesday in a briefing with the heads of international news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum upon being asked about last week’s move to loosen restrictions on Kyiv in the wake of Moscow’s new assault on the Kharkiv border region.
“If someone considers it possible to supply such weapons to a combat zone to strike our territory and create problems for us, then why do we not have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world from which the strikes will be carried out on sensitive objects of those countries that do this in relation to Russia?” Putin said. “That is, the answer may be symmetrical. We will think about it.”
“Ultimately, if we see that these countries are being drawn into 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 way,” he said. “But, in general, this is the path to very serious problems.” Concluded Putin.
Putin warned European NATO states last week that the move to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia with their weapons was playing with fire and could precipitate a global conflict.