Vladimir Putin has warned that any Western delivery of longer-range rocket systems will prompt Moscow to hit “things we haven’t hit yet”. His statement came after the West began stepping up its supply of military assets to Ukraine on Sunday.
The Russian leader’s military escalation threat did not specify what the new targets might be, but it came days after the US announced plans to provide £560million in security aid to Ukraine, also including four medium-range, precision-guided rocket systems. like helicopters, Javelin anti-tank systems, radars, tactical vehicles and more.
The UK also announced that it would send its first long-range missiles to Ukraine. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 50 miles – a longer range than any missile technology currently in use during the war. In a television interview broadcast on Sunday, Mr Putin denounced Western arms supplies to Ukraine, saying they were aimed at prolonging the war.
“All this hype about additional arms deliveries, in my opinion, has only one goal: to prolong the armed conflict as long as possible,” Putin said. He insisted that such supplies were unlikely to change the military situation of the Ukrainian government, which he said was only compensating for losses from similar rockets.
If Kyiv gets longer-range rockets, he added, Moscow “will draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, which we have in abundance, to hit the objects we haven’t hit yet”. . The missiles that hit Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armored vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Ukraine’s railway authority led journalists on a guided tour of a wagon repair plant in eastern Kyiv which it said was hit by four missiles. The authority said that no military equipment was stored there. “There were no tanks, and you can witness that,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian president. However, a government adviser told national television that military infrastructure was also targeted.
Moscow also accused the West on Sunday of cutting lines of communication by forcing Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s plane to cancel a trip to Serbia for talks on Monday. And Spanish daily El Pais reported on Sunday that Spain plans to supply anti-aircraft missiles and up to 40 Leopard 2 A4 main battle tanks to Ukraine.
Prior to Sunday’s early morning attack, Kyiv had not faced a Russian airstrike since April 28. The attack raised air raid alarms and showed that Russia still has the ability and the will to strike at the heart of Ukraine, despite refocusing its efforts to capture territory to the east. .
The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in its daily intelligence update that the Ukrainian counterattacks in Sieverodonetsk “probably blunted the operational momentum that Russian forces had previously gained by concentrating combat units and power of fire”. Russian forces had previously made a series of advances into the city, but Ukrainian fighters have pushed back in recent days.
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