War in Ukraine: Moscow will aim for new targets if long-range missiles are supplied to Ukraine, threatens Vladimir Putin


These statements come days after the United States announced its decision to deliver multiple rocket launchers with a range of about 80 km to Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that Moscow would strike new targets if the West supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine, judging that the current arms deliveries were aimed at “prolong the conflict“.

If long-range missiles are delivered to Ukraine, “then we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our weapons (…) to hit sites that we have not targeted so far“said the Russian president, according to excerpts from an interview to be published on Sunday evening on the Rossiya-1 television channel. He did not define the range from which Moscow would react, nor specify which targets could be targeted.

These statements come a few days after the United States announced its decision to deliver to Ukraine Himars (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) multiple rocket launchers with a range of about 80 km. Military experts point out that this range is slightly greater than that of similar Russian systems, which would allow kyiv forces to strike enemy artillery while remaining out of reach.

US President Joe Biden, however, said on Monday that he ruled out delivering long-range rocket launcher systems to Ukraine that could reach Russia, despite repeated requests from kyiv for such weapons.

Vladimir Poutine estimated that there was for the moment “nothing newin US weapons supplied to kyiv, adding that Ukrainian forces already had “similar Soviet or Russian-made systems, such as Grad, Smertch or Ouragan“.

The range of the projectilesdoes not depend on the system itself, but on the missiles that are used“continued Vladimir Putin. “What we hear and understand today is that these are (for American Himars) missiles with a range of 45-70 km“, he added. The Russian president considered that Western arms deliveries to Ukraine had “only one objective: to prolong the armed conflict as long as possible“.


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