Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that Moscow will hit new targets if the West delivers long-range missiles to Ukraine, saying new arms deliveries to Kiev were aimed at “prolonging the conflict”.
If Kiev is supplied with long-range missiles, “we will draw the right conclusions and use our weapons … to hit targets that we have not hit before,” Putin said through Russian news agencies.
In excerpts from an interview to be broadcast on Rossiya-1 television late Sunday, Putin did not specify exactly which targets could be hit, nor the exact range of the missiles Moscow would respond to.
But his comments came just days after the United States announced it would provide Ukraine with Himar’s multiple-launch missile systems.
Himars is a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision guided missiles up to 80 kilometers (50 mi) away.
Military experts say the range of the Himars systems is slightly greater than comparable Russian systems, meaning Kiev’s forces can attack enemy artillery while staying out of Moscow’s range.
US President Joe Biden has nevertheless ruled out Ukraine providing systems that could even reach Russia, despite Kiev’s repeated requests for such weapons.
Putin said there was “nothing new” in the weapons supplied to Kiev by Washington, and that the Ukrainian armed forces had weapons at their disposal “similar to Soviet or Russian-made systems”.
The range of the missiles was “dependent not on the system itself, but on the missiles used,” the Russian leader continued.
“As far as we know and understand today, they are systems that use missiles with a range of 45-70 kilometers.”
Putin said the sole purpose of the West’s arms supplies to Ukraine was “to prolong the conflict”.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)