Russia could arm the West’s enemies with long-range missiles if Ukraine uses NATO-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday.
Several countries that have provided long-range weapons to Ukraine, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, have given Kyiv permission to use them to attack targets across Russia’s border in recent weeks.
It marks a change of heart for Ukraine’s allies, which had previously provided military aid on the proviso that the weapons weren’t used to hit Russia directly, and follows Moscow’s recent territorial gains in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv.
“If someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to attack our territory and create problems for us, why don’t we have the right to supply weapons of the same class to regions of the world where there will be strikes on sensitive facilities of those countries?” Putin said at a rare press conference with foreign journalists in Moscow on Wednesday.
“That is, the response can be asymmetric. We will think about it,” the Russian leader added.
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, a member of the Armed Services Committee, confirmed this week that Kyiv has used U.S.-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia but declined to say more.
The threatened tit-for-tat from Putin comes as Moscow is expected to deploy warships and aircraft for military exercises in the Caribbean in the coming weeks, according to the Associated Press.