MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin warned the West that Moscow could retaliate on Thursday, claiming that the war in Ukraine was intensifying into a worldwide battle after the United States and Britain permitted Ukraine to use its weapons against Russia.
Putin said that Russia has launched a new type of hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile at a Ukrainian military installation in retaliation for the use of American and British missiles. Putin cautioned that more might come.
He claimed that before more attacks using these weapons, civilians will be alerted.
Ukraine launched six US-made ATACMS on November 19 and US-made HIMARS and British Storm Shadow missiles on November 21 after receiving consent from President Joe Biden’s administration, Putin said.
In a speech to the country broadcast on state television, Putin stated, “A regional conflict in Ukraine that was initially sparked by the West has acquired elements of a global character since that moment, as we have repeatedly underscored.”
Putin claimed that the US was driving the globe toward a world war.
“And we will also react decisively and in a mirror manner in the event that aggressive actions escalate,” he stated.
Putin said that no significant damage had been caused by the Ukrainian missile attack using ATACMS. However, Putin claimed that the Storm Shadow attack on the Kursk region on November 21 was targeted at a command center and resulted in fatalities and injuries.
According to the Russian president, “the enemy’s use of such weapons cannot alter the direction of the military actions in the zone of the special military operation.”
Putin declared, “We believe we have the right to use our weapons against the military installations of those nations that permit the use of their weapons against our installations.” “Anyone else who questions this is mistaken—there will always be a response.”
Eighty percent of the Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, more than 70 percent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, just under three percent of the Kharkiv region, a small portion of the Mykolaiv region, and all of Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, are under Russian control.
According to Ukraine and the West, the 2022 invasion was an imperial-style attempt to seize Ukrainian sovereignty, and if Putin prevails in Ukraine, they fear Russia may attempt to attack a NATO member in the future.
In the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where the missile and space rocket business Pivdenmash is headquartered, Putin claimed that Moscow had tested a new medium-range hypersonic non-nuclear ballistic missile, dubbed “Oreshnik” (the hazel).
According to him, the firm was successfully attacked.
In response to the United States’ planned manufacturing and subsequent deployment of medium and shorter range missiles in Europe and the far east, he claimed, Russia was creating short and medium range missiles.
Referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) deal, Putin stated, “I think the United States erred by unilaterally destroying the treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext.”
After accusing Moscow of breaking the historic 1987 INF Treaty, which the Kremlin denied, the United States formally withdrew from the agreement in 2019.
Putin unilaterally halted the development of missiles that the INF pact had previously prohibited. According to him, the West’s actions and threats against Russia will determine what Russia does in the future.
“Remember that Russia has unilaterally and voluntarily agreed not to use medium-range and shorter-range missiles until American weapons of this type are available anywhere in the world.”
