Putin promised to respond with "strikes" if Kiev gets the opportunity to attack Russia with missiles from the United States
Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin in the program "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" on the channel "Russia 1" commented on the announced US deliveries of HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine. The Head of State said that if the range of the missiles transferred to Kiev allows it to hit the territory of the Russian Federation, then Russia will strike "at those objects that it has not yet struck."
"Nothing new"
Vladimir Putin believes that there is "nothing new" in the HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems that the United States has decided to supply to Kiev. According to him, similar Soviet and Russian-made systems were already in service with the Ukrainian army - "Grads", "Tornadoes" and "Hurricanes".
The President stressed that the range of the systems depends on the missiles.
"It depends on what kind of missiles the Americans will deliver. What we hear and understand today are rockets that fly just 45-70 kilometers, depending on the type of rocket. The same thing happened with those "Grads", "Hurricanes", "Tornadoes", about which I said - there is also a range of 40-70 kilometers, there is nothing new," the head of state is sure.
Making up for losses
Putin believes that what is happening has "nothing to do with trust or distrust of the Ukrainian regime." According to his data, the Ukrainian army was armed with approximately 515 multiple rocket launchers at the time of the start of the military special operation. Of these, 380 were destroyed by Russia.
"But part of it has been restored, taken from stocks. As we understand it, they have about 360 in stock (today - "Newspaper.Ru»). We proceed from the fact that this supply from the United States and some other countries is connected with the replacement of losses of this military equipment. There is nothing new here, and nothing is changing in essence," the president explained.
The Russian leader noted that Ukraine also has applications for the supply of artillery. He believes that in this case, probably, we are also talking about restoring what was lost and destroyed during the fighting.
Drones
The Russian leader added that Ukraine is also requesting supplies of unmanned aerial vehicles. According to him, among the UAVs that Kiev needs are strike unmanned systems. The President noted that Ukraine had applied them from the very beginning.
"They are used effectively only where there is no military air defense system. We have. "Beeches", "Torahs", "Shells" - work extremely efficiently. And so that no one would be offended, but our air defense systems click like nuts, dozens have been destroyed," Putin said.
He said that Ukraine also has reconnaissance drones. Many such UAVs flew over the country from the very beginning of the special operation, and the West initially supplied them all, since "they are all foreign-made."
"There is a third type (UAV - "Newspaper.Ru") are reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles of a strategic nature. They fly at an altitude of 8-11-10 km . They were always used - before the start of the operation - they flew over the Black Sea, over the territory of Ukraine. They didn't fly to us, though, but they are used now and have been used before. Why they should be transferred to Ukraine is not very clear to me. Unless they give us the opportunity to plant somewhere and see how they work. I just don't see any other meaning. This does not change anything," the head of state stressed.
Prolonging the armed conflict
"All this fuss over additional arms supplies, in my opinion, has only one goal - to prolong the armed conflict as long as possible," Putin is sure.
The journalist also asked him what would happen if the United States still supplied Ukraine with missiles with which Kiev could hit the territory of Russia.
"If they are supplied, we will draw appropriate conclusions from this, use our weapons of destruction, which we have enough to strike at those objects that we are not striking yet," the president said.
Earlier, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Al Jazeera that if Ukraine uses the supplied missile systems against Russian facilities, the Armed Forces will have no choice but to act to defeat the decision-making centers.
"But you need to understand that the final decision-making centers in this case, unfortunately, are not even on the territory of Kiev. Therefore, this is certainly a threat that will need to be taken into account," he said.
Earlier, the United States announced the approval of the supply of HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems to Kiev, provided that they will not be used to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky promised that he would fulfill this requirement.
Maria Shustrova
