Long-range arms OK would put NATO at 'war with Russia': Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the West letting Kyiv use longer-range weapons to strike Russian targets would mean NATO would be “at war” with Russia.

Putin spoke as US and UK top diplomats discussed easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, which Kyiv has been pressing for, more than two and a half years into Moscow’s offensive.

“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Putin told a state television reporter. “It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” he added.

“If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Poland on Thursday (12 September), did not confirm that the United States will permit Ukraine to fire Western-supplied missiles into Russian territory, but left the possibility open.

This issue and further aid for Ukraine were the main topics of Blinken’s talks with his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski (PO, EPP) and President Andrzej Duda.

Blinken said he would bring the discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the missiles “back to Washington to brief the president.”

“As what Russia’s doing has changed, the battlefield has changed, we have adapted,” Blinken told a news conference in Warsaw, speaking alongside Sikorski.