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Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to “hit those targets we have not yet hit” in Ukraine if the West provides Kiev with longer-range weapons.
In an interview with state television Rossia-1 on June 5, Putin said the “fuss” over the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine was a ploy to defuse the conflict.
Putin did not specify what new targets Russia could hit.
Russia launched its unprovoked war against Ukraine on February 24. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in more than 100 days of fighting since then. Russia has not released much information about its losses during the conflict, but Western and Ukrainian analysts have said they were much larger than Moscow initially expected.
Ukraine has requested advanced multi-missile launch systems such as the M270 and M142 HIMARS in order to be able to strike at the rear of Russian forces.
US President Joe Biden said last week that he would provide Ukraine with the HIMARS system after making sure it would not be used to hit targets inside Russia.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on June 5 that Madrid plans to supply Ukraine with Leopard anti-aircraft missiles and battle tanks. Madrid plans to train the Ukrainian military on the use of weapons at a base in Latvia, where Spain has already deployed 500 troops.
Putin said the new armaments for Ukraine were intended to “compensate for the losses” of Ukrainian equipment and would “not change anything fundamentally.”
“This is nothing new,” he said.
In an excerpt from the same interview released on June 4, Putin said that Russian air defense systems had destroyed Ukrainian drones and “smashed them like nuts.”
The United States has been reluctant to hand over heavy artillery amid concerns it could provoke Russia, analysts said.
Some analysts say the administration’s internal debate over arms supplies has lost valuable time for Ukraine.
“All our decisions have been delayed,” Ben Hodges, a former US Army commander in Europe, told Radio Free Europe.
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