Firmly Warns US Not To Send Long-Range Missiles To Ukraine, President Putin: We Will Strike New Targets

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Wikimedia Commons/The Presidential Press and Information Office)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the United States not to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine, or it would carry out strikes against new targets.

The United States has ruled out sending its own troops or (NATO) troops to Ukraine, but Washington and its European allies have supplied Kyiv with weapons such as drones, Howitzer heavy artillery, Stinger anti-aircraft, and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

President Joe Biden last week said Washington would supply Ukraine with the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, after he received assurances that Kyiv would not use it to target Russia.

In this regard, President Putin said arms deliveries were nothing new and did not change anything, other than warning there would be a response if the United States supplied long-range munitions for the HIMARS system, which has a maximum range of up to 300 km (185 miles) or more. .

If long-range missiles are supplied, "we will strike targets that we have not hit," Putin told state television channel Rossiya-1 in an interview.

President Putin said the range of Lockheed Martin's HIMARS system depends on the ammunition supplied. Meanwhile, the range announced by the United States is almost the same as the Soviet-made missile system that Ukraine already has.

"This is nothing new. It basically doesn't change anything," Putin said. He said the weapons were simply replacing the ones Russia had destroyed.

Furthermore, President Putin did not identify the targets Russia would attack, but said the fuss around Western arms supplies was designed to defuse the conflict.

Earlier, the US Department of Defense said it was supplying Ukraine with four HIMARS M142 systems along with the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, which is said to have a range of more than 40 miles (64 km), double the range of the howitzers it supplies.

The war in Ukraine, Europe's largest land invasion since the Second World War, has shown the limits of post-Soviet Russia's military might, with significant losses and several changes in strategy in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.

Talking about the drones being sent by Western countries to Ukraine, President Putin said Russian air defenses were 'cracking them like nuts' with dozens destroyed.

Although Russian officials have warned that the US decision to supply Ukraine with advanced rocket systems would exacerbate the conflict, President Putin said it would not bring about fundamental changes on the battlefield.

The interview, which the Kremlin says was recorded on June 3 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, shows President Putin sitting in front of a map of the great wall of Russia, Europe and Central Asia.