Putin threatens to supply weapons to the West because of attacks on Ukraine within Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a new series of threats, hinting that he could supply weapons to countries to attack Western targets and once again rattling his nuclear sabre.

His warning – a response to the decision by the United States and its European allies to allow Ukraine to attack Russian territory with its weapons – was the Kremlin’s latest threat to step up its support for Kyiv. The Russian president also stressed that Washington and its partners were wrong to assume that he would never use nuclear weapons.

In response, President Joe Biden said Thursday that Putin is “a dictator” who has “troubled him for 40 years” and who struggles to balance domestic political pressures with the demands of his military mission.

However, Biden also stressed that the US would not allow Ukraine to use American weapons deep inside Russia to launch attacks on Moscow or the Kremlin itself.

Putin’s warning

The Russian president’s latest threats came at a briefing with heads of international news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Wednesday. He was asked about last week’s move to ease restrictions on Kyiv following Moscow’s new attack on the border region of Kharkiv.

“If someone thinks it is possible to deliver such weapons to a combat zone to attack our territory and create problems for us, then why do we not have the right to deliver our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world from which the attacks are carried out on sensitive objects of those countries that do this in relation to Russia?” Putin said. “That is, the answer could be symmetrical. We will think about it.”

“If we ultimately see that these countries are drawn into a war against us and this is their direct participation in the war against the Russian Federation, then we reserve the right to act in a similar way,” he said. “But in general, this is the path to very serious problems.”

It was not immediately clear to which “regions of the world” he would deliver such missiles.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to name the regions Putin had in mind. The Russian president said what he wanted to say, sending a clear message that supplying weapons for attacks inside Russia “cannot remain without consequences,” Peskov told reporters at a daily briefing.

Putin warned European NATO countries last week that allowing Ukraine to deploy weapons inside Russia was playing with fire and could trigger a global conflict.

Fearing retaliation from Moscow, Ukraine’s allies have so far been hesitant to allow the use of their weapons in Russia. But the Kremlin’s new cross-border offensive has increased the pressure for a change of course. Kiev feels disadvantaged and increasingly frustrated.

Earlier this week, Ukraine signaled that it had carried out the first attack on Russia using Western weapons. The target was apparently an air defense system in the Belgorod border region.

When asked what could trigger a nuclear war and how close the world is to that risk, Putin said Russia is often accused of wielding a “nuclear baton,” but he was not the one who raised the question.

However, he added that if Russia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were threatened, it could use “all the means at our disposal” in line with the country’s nuclear doctrine – a framework that sets the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons.

“For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use it,” Putin said.

“This is not something to be taken lightly, not superficially,” he added.

Putin has threatened to use Russia’s massive nuclear arsenal since it became clear that Kyiv’s Western allies would not abandon the war-torn country and would supply it with battlefield weapons, ultimately delaying the swift operation Putin had expected.

Asked about Putin’s recent comments in an interview in Normandy, France, Biden said the Russian president had “worried him for 40 years.”

“He’s not a decent man. He’s a dictator,” Biden told ABC News on Thursday, “and he’s struggling to hold his country together while he continues this attack.”

Biden added: “We’re not talking about giving them weapons to attack Moscow, to attack the Kremlin,” but only about letting Ukraine strike “right across the border, where they’re under massive fire with conventional weapons that the Russians are using to invade Ukraine and kill Ukrainians.”

While waiting for new shipments of US weapons, Ukraine managed to slow the Russian advance and halt the ground offensive in the northeast. Kyiv is now pushing for its allies to further ease restrictions on the use of their weapons so they can strike deeper into enemy territory.

Biden will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in France this week as the West marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

In a speech at the American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer on the anniversary of D-Day, Biden drew a direct parallel between the Allies’ fight against Nazi Germany and Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

“The struggle between dictatorship and freedom is endless. Here in Europe we see a stark example. Ukraine was invaded by a tyrant bent on domination,” he said. “We must not allow what happened here to be forgotten in the years to come. We must remember it, honor it and live it.”

“Democracy is never guaranteed,” he added.