The standoff continues to intensify between the Kremlin and kyiv’s allies. Vladimir Putin thus threatened on Wednesday to deliver weapons to third countries likely to strike Western interests, if the West authorizes Ukraine to strike Russia with its long-range missiles.
For Vladimir Putin, if long-range missiles requiring the assistance of Western military personnel were fired against targets in Russia in the future, Moscow would retaliate.
Putin’s eye for an eye policy
“If someone considers it possible to supply such weapons in the combat zone to strike our territory (…), why should we not have the right to supply our weapons of the same type in regions of the world where the sensitive installations of countries that act in this way against Russia? », Launched the master of the Kremlin, during an interview with around fifteen press agencies, including AFP, on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.
The Russian president also reaffirmed that Western military instructors “are already in Ukraine, and suffering losses there”. Losses about which “the United States and European states prefer to remain silent,” according to him.
Italy fears escalation
Some NATO countries, such as Italy, however, remain opposed to the use of their weapons on Russian territory, fearing an escalation of the conflict.
France, for its part, recently announced that it was considering sending military instructors to Ukraine to accelerate the training of Ukrainian soldiers and the formation of a European coalition for this purpose. Last week, Vladimir Putin said that Western instructors were in Ukraine, “under the guise of mercenaries”. Other countries including the United States have ruled out sending instructors. No state has reported the presence of its military in Ukraine.
Moscow says it wants to negotiate
During the roughly three-hour discussion Wednesday, Vladimir Putin reiterated his arguments that Russia was willing to come to the negotiating table, and that the best way to stop the war was for the West to “stop deliver weapons” to Ukraine. He also refused to quantify the losses suffered by the Russian army after two and a half years of conflict, assuring that they were “much lower” than the Ukrainian losses. “If we talk about irreparable losses (deaths), then the ratio is one to five” with the losses suffered on the Ukrainian side, he said.