The United States has ruled out sending its own or NATO forces to Ukraine, but Washington and its European allies have provided kyiv with weapons, such as drones, Howitzer heavy artillery, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank.
Last week, President Joe Biden said Washington would provide Ukraine with M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, after receiving assurances from kyiv that they would not be used to target Russia.
Mr Putin said the arms deliveries were ‘nothing new’ and did not change anything, but he warned there would be a response if the US supplied longer-range munitions for HIMARS systems , which have a maximum range of 300 km (185 miles) or more.
If longer-range missiles are delivered, “we will hit the targets we haven’t hit yet,” Putin said in an interview with state TV channel Rossiya-1.
Mr Putin said the range of Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS systems depended on the munitions supplied and that the range announced by the United States was about the same as that of the Soviet-made missile systems Ukraine already possessed.
“There is nothing new. It does not change anything in substance,” Putin said. He said the weapons were merely replacing those that Russia had destroyed.
Putin did not identify the targets Russia was going to hit, but said the “fuss” over Western arms supplies was meant to prolong the conflict.
The US Department of Defense said it is supplying Ukraine with four M142 HIMARS systems as well as the guided multiple launch rocket system which it says has a range of more than 40 miles (64 km) – double that of the gate of the howitzers he supplies.
CRACKLING NUTS
The war in Ukraine, the largest ground invasion of Europe since World War II, showed the limits of Russia’s post-Soviet military might with heavy casualties and several shifts in strategy in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Speaking about the drones delivered by Western states to Ukraine, Mr Putin said the Russian air defenses were “cracking them like nuts”. Dozens, he said, were destroyed.
Although Russian officials have warned that the US decision to supply Ukraine with advanced rocket systems would exacerbate the conflict, Putin said it would not bring about any fundamental change on the battlefield.
The interview, which the Kremlin says was recorded June 3 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, shows Putin sitting in front of a large wall map of Russia, Europe and Central Asia.
Asked about Ukrainian grain exports, he said the best solution would be to send them through Belarus, but said the Russian ally’s sanctions would have to be lifted.
Since the February 24 Russian invasion, Ukrainian grain shipments from its Black Sea ports have stalled and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos.
Putin and Russian officials do not use the words war or invasion, claiming it is a “special military operation” to prevent the persecution of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
Putin also presents it as a turning point in Russian history: a revolt by Moscow 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 an Imperial Russian-style land grab that has irrevocably split the two largest East Slavic peoples and brought death and destruction to Europe’s second-largest country. Europe by area.