NATO to Be at War With Russia if It Authorizes Ukraine to Use Missiles, Putin Warns
Western-made long-range missiles. X/ @dmitry_gordon
September 12, 2024 Hour: 1:18 pm
‘If that happens, we will make the appropriate decisions based on the threats posed to us,’ the Russian leader stated.
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be at war with Russia if it authorizes Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets on Russian territory.
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“If that decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct involvement of NATO countries, the U.S., and European countries in the Ukrainian war,” Putin said in St. Petersburg.
“That will mean that NATO countries, the U.S., and European countries are fighting against Russia,” he reiterated, emphasizing that such a decision would change “the very nature of the conflict,” hinting that it would no longer be limited to a war between the Russian and Ukrainian armies.
“And if that happens, considering the fundamental shift in the nature of this conflict, we will make the appropriate decisions based on the threats posed to us,” the Russian leader explained and recalled that the Ukrainian army does not have the technical capability to operate long-range missiles, such as ATACMS or Storm Shadows, on its own, as this type of weaponry can only be launched against Russia with the help of intelligence data from U.S. or European Union satellites.
“And most importantly, the flight missions can only be determined by NATO military personnel,” the Russian leader added, reiterating what he had already claimed in May, when he warned Europeans about the “serious consequences” that military actions of this nature would have since they live in “countries with small but densely populated territories.”
On Thusday, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that the West had already long given Ukraine permission to attack Russian territory with long-range missiles. He called Wednesday’s visit to Kyiv by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who discussed these issues with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a “staged event.”
“Every day, the number of Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets and shelling of civilians is drastically increasing… Western military specialists are literally manually coordinating the attacks with precision weapons,” the Russian diplomat said and accused NATO of supplying Kyiv with intelligence satellite data.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
