the president of Russia, Vladimir Putinstated today that the Russian Armed Forces will attack new targets if the West supplies Ukraine long range missiles.
“If they do supply them, we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our weapons, which we do not lack, to attack those targets that we have not hit so far,” he noted in an interview with the First Channel of Russian public television.
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Putin made this warning following the White House officially announced a new package of military aid to Ukraine worth 700 million dollarswhich includes multiple missile launchers HIMARS with a range of up to 70 km.
USA made this decision following the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskypromised not to use them once morest Russian territory.
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Putin assured that the American decision will not fundamentally change the balance of power on the ground, since Russia believes that the supply of weapons by the US and other countries to Ukraine serves to replace losses in weapons suffered by kyiv during the hostilities.
“There is nothing new here. First of all, these multiple launch rocket systems, following all, are in service in the Ukrainian Army, (they are) similar Soviet, Russian-made Grad, Smerch, Uragan systems”, he pointed.
“What we see, hear, know has nothing to do with trust in the Ukrainian regime or distrust (before a possible attack on Russian territory), it depends on the type of missiles supplied by the Americans,” he stressed.
“But what we hear today and what we understand is that they are missiles that fly exactly between 45 and 70 kilometers, depending on the type of missile,” something that already happens with the weapons that kyiv currently has, he said.
Putin also said that kyiv has requested the supply of artillery.
“Well, it’s more or less the same. Apparently we are also talking regarding replenishing what was lost, what was destroyed during hostilities,” she said.
The head of the Kremlin assured that, at the time of the start of the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraineapproximately 515 of these systems were already part of the war material of the Ukrainian Army and 380 of them were destroyed.
“A part has been restored (…) and we understand that they have regarding 360 in stock,” added Putin.
He also assured that Russian air defenses “crack” foreign attack drones supplied to Ukraine like “nuts”.
“It is known that there are several types of them. First of all, these are attack drones. They have been used from the beginning. However, they are only effectively employed where there are no air defenses on the battlefield.” stressed.
He said Russian air defense systems “are very effective.”
“We hope no one is offended, but they (the drones) are cracking them like nuts. Dozens and dozens of those drones have been eliminated,” she asserted.
The Russian president considered that, in general, “all this hustle and bustle around the supply of additional weapons pursues, in my view, a single objective, to prolong the armed conflict as much as possible” in Ukraine.
