Vladimir Putin warns Moscow could provide weapons to strike West in rare meeting | ABC News
Vladimir Putin has held a rare face-to-face meeting with international news agencies in St Petersburg the Russian president told journalists the deliveries of German tanks to Ukraine came as a shock Germany recently joined the US in authorizing Ukraine to hit some Targets on Russian soil with the longrange weapons they Supply to k Mr Putin says the use of those weapons would Mark a dangerous step and could further undermine International Security he’s warned Russia could provide its own long range missiles to others to strike Western targets for some reason the West believes that Russia will never use nuclear weapons if someone’s actions threaten our sovereignty we consider it possible for us to use all means at our disposal here’s our Global Affairs analyst John Lions hi there John so are things ramping up how much of this is posturing well Ros it’s always hard to know with Vladimir Putin this is um According to some analysts about the 80th time now since the War Began um The Invasion uh 2 and a half years ago that Vladimir Putin or one of his officials has used the nuclear Spectre has raised the nuclear threat so you know is it the boy or the dictator crying wolf it’s it’s hard to know um the West has to obviously the world has to be you know see it as a possibility it’s concerning because they have more nuclear warheads than any other country so you know we have to take this carefully but obviously Vladimir Putin has always been using this in the background and fascinating that briefing um that he had pretty rare foreign journalists in St Petersburg they’re up in this high-rise Tower sitting around two 3 hours or so and Vladimir Putin laughing and they asked him that was he the aggressor the world’s major aggressor and he’s laughing and trying to charm them all but fascinating that basically U with the Velvet glove um the fist beneath that glove is the threat that we will uh enable other countries to start hitting third countries if the US allows their weapons to be fired into Russia he could be talk who we don’t know who he’s talking about or if it’s an empty threat but it’s certainly disturbing rhetoric so how does this move by the West to allow its weapons to be used to hit targets inside Russia how does that change the dynamic of this well it changes it because up till now Ukraine’s been fighting with one hand behind its back um there’s not many wars where one side is not allowed to fire into the other Ukraine has not been able to fire into Russia the subtext to all of this is of course that the US does not want a major configration for this to spread around Europe and therefore has not wanted to aggravate Russia too much it’s pretty clear now Washington doesn’t want Ukraine to lose but it doesn’t want Putin to lose either it’s it would rather gridlock because if Vladimir Putin loses this war the US is worried about what comes after him what comes next in terms of the oligarchs and the chaos within Russia with all those nuclear weapons so now H is under attack really seriously in Ukraine and this is in response to that Ukraine is slowly losing the war and the US is starting to think we have to try to do something different so they’re allowing now their missiles to be fired into parts of of Russia
Ukraine has used American-made weapons to strike inside Russia for the first time in another escalation of the war.
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It comes as Russian president Vladimir Putin warns the use of those weapons would mark a “dangerous step” and could further undermine international security.
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