Putin says UK and US will be ‘at war’ with Russia if Ukraine gets western missiles
Vladimir Putin has now directly threatened Nato and the US with war if the west were to let Ukraine use long-range missiles.
It comes after discussions have intensified surrounding Ukraine’s potential use of the Western supplied weapons against Russia.
Ukraine has long been asking for permission to use the western drones to help in its fight against Russia, but the US and UK have held back for fear of escalation.
That soon may change though, after David Lammy and Antony Blinken visited Ukraine this week, where they were urged again to lift restrictions on the use of weapons against Russia.
But Putin issued an extreme dire warning to the west, saying this would ‘change the very nature of the conflict’.
He told a state TV reporter today: ‘It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia.
‘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.’
He added it ‘is a decision on whether NATO countries are directly involved in the conflict or not’.
But Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said it would ‘bring peace closer’, but worries escalation from Russia has halted any decision making from the west.
President Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to fire US-provided missiles across the border into Russia in self-defence – but largely limited the distance over concerns about further escalating the conflict.
Russia expert Keir Giles, of think tank Chatham House, told Metro that the typical response from Russia in regards to western-supplied missiles in Ukraine is to threaten a ‘response’.
When Russia does retaliate, it does so against civilians, as seen in early July when a children’s hospital, nurseries and shopping centre were all targeted with missiles days after Ukraine started a border incursion into Russia.
Some have worried that Russia’s threat of a ‘response’ could come in the form of the use of nuclear weapons – with Kremlin cronies threatening their use often.
He added: ‘There’s no reason to think that after so many demonstrations of empty Russian threats, an extension of the use of missiles already in service would be the final straw that would trigger a suicidal response from the Kremlin.’
Mr Giles explained if Russia retaliates in larger attacks if Ukraine is given the go ahead to use western missiles, it would be another consequence of Ukraine defending its sovereignty against Russia.
He said: ‘It’s an unavoidable consequence of being a neighbour of Russia – the only nuance is whether the cost is incurred through resisting Russian colonisation, or giving in to it.
‘The standard Russian reaction to anything that upsets the Kremlin or surprises them is an intensification of campaigns to target the most vulnerable in Ukrainian society.
‘This means attacks against hospitals, schools, shopping centres and critical national infrastructure.’
Threats of a ‘response’ have been ‘highly effective in constraining’ what the United States has done in terms of weapons supplies to date, Mr Giles said.
‘The promise of retaliation distracts from the fact that if the United States were to either ease restrictions on use of their own weapons in Ukraine – or allow other coalition partners like the UK and France to do that – it would be an appropriate response from them to the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia from Iran, for which the West had threatened severe consequences,’ he explained.
‘Iran and Russia feeling that they can go ahead with their ballistic missile supply is evidence that they have not been effectively deterred.’
Earlier this week, the US and UK both accused Iran of supplying short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to use in the war in Ukraine and said they plan to punish those involved.
It was suspected the news about Iranian missiles could embolden Zelensky to further ramp up pressure on the US and other allies to allow Ukraine to use Western-supplied missiles to strike deep inside Russia.
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