Putin threatens West with response if it approves Ukrainian strikes deep into Russia

Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that the Russian Defence Ministry is working on various ways to respond if the United States and its Western allies approve long-range strikes by Ukraine deep into Russian territory with Western weapons.

Source: Putin in an interview with Russian propagandist Pavel Zarubin; European Pravda reports

Details: In September, Putin said that Western approval of such a step would mean direct involvement of NATO countries in the war in Ukraine, as long-range strikes would involve the Alliance's infrastructure.

Putin told Zarubin that it was still too early to say how Russia would react to such a decision. But, he said, Moscow would "have to" respond.

"Of course, we will have to respond to this appropriately. How to respond, when, where exactly – it's too early to say. It is clear that our military department is working on this and will offer various options for responses," Putin said.

He said that only NATO officers would be able to fire such weapons, and that they would need to use Western satellite data for targeting. The question is therefore really "whether they will allow [Ukraine] to strike deep into Russian territory or not".

Background:

• Only several weeks before the US presidential election, Putin changed Russia's nuclear doctrine to intimidate the West in response to discussions of allowing long-range strikes against Russia.

• The EU said that Putin's new nuclear threats would not change the EU's position on continuing to support Ukraine.
• Polish President Andrzej Duda believes that Putin is only repeating what has been enshrined in Russian military doctrine for many years.

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