Putin issues dire warning to West on long-range weapons in Ukraine

Putin warns NATO will be at war with Russia if West authorizes Ukraine to use long-range weapons. Western leaders have dismissed these comments, but the enemy always gets a vote.

The US and other countries which have been supplying weapons to Ukraine in their fight against Russia are currently inching towards authorizing Ukraine to use long range missiles to strike deeper into Russian territory. Already Ukraine has deployed drones to directly attack Moscow, including by targeting residential apartment buildings. Russia has also responded in kind, targeting civilian infrastructure within Ukraine.

For the past month, Ukraine has also occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region. This could potentially enable them to use these long-range weapons to even more devastating effect.

While the Biden administration has hinted that this new authorization is in the works, so far they have not given a firm timeline. It is possible that the delay reflects a worry that the authorization could spark an intensification of the conflict that could hurt Kamala Harris’s candidacy ahead of the November election.

There is also a danger that such an escalation would inevitably draw the US and other NATO forces to take an active part in the fighting, rather than continuing to wage a proxy war. From there, the possibilities increase that nuclear weapons could be in play.

Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a warning to Ukraine’s allies to this effect. Putin warned that he would regard the authorization of Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons in Russian territory as a declaration of war on Russia by NATO. Putin has previously warned that this would make American or other Western targets fair game.

The US and the West have sought to dismiss Putin’s comments. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer brushed them aside with the assertion that Putin could end the war at any time.

The view from Moscow

Whatever moral calculus one employs with regard to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or to any conflict, the enemy always gets a vote. Putin has consistently framed his invasion as a response to an existential threat to Russia’s sovereignty, and so is unlikely to back down.

For decades, Putin repeatedly warned against the eastward expansion of NATO. The Kremlin has been particularly alarmed by increasing NATO cooperation with Ukraine, and especially by statements from US and other Western politicians supporting Ukraine’s entry into NATO. Aside from his rhetoric about “denazifying” Ukraine, Putin has consistently cited the growing NATO threat as a justification for the 2022 invasion.

In June, Putin hinted that he may enable other state and non-state actors to carry out attacks on these targets if the West authorized Ukraine to strike Russian territory. Other prominent figures in the Russian government have repeatedly warned that Russia could resort to deploying nukes in the event their territory is under threat.

Putin has said that the war could end with a settlement that would permanently bar Ukraine from entering NATO. From his perspective, the West could also end this war at any time by agreeing to this neutrality principle.

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Putin issues dire warning to West on long-range weapons in Ukraine – National & International News – FRI 13Sep2024