By Guy Faulconbridge, Marina Bobrova and Maxim Rodionov
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the war in Ukraine was escalating into an international conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to strike Russia with their own weapons, and warned the West that Moscow could retaliate.
Russia, Putin said, responded to the use of US and British weapons by firing a new type of hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile at a Ukrainian military base. More may follow, Putin warned. He also said that civilians will be warned before attacking again with such weapons.
After approval from the administration of President Joe Biden, Ukraine struck Russia with six US-made ATACMS on November 19 and with British Storm Shadow missiles and US-made HIMARS on Nov. 21, Putin said.
“Since that time, as we have continued to emphasize, the regional violence in Ukraine that was once provoked by the West has acquired the properties of an international man,” Putin said in a speech to the nation carried by national television after 8 pm Moscow time (1700 GMT. )
The United States, Putin said, was pushing the world toward international conflict.
“And if there is an increase in aggressive acts, we will also respond in a strong and mirror manner,” he said.
Putin said the Ukrainian missile attack by ATACMS failed to cause serious damage. But the Storm Shadow attack on the Kursk region on November 21 was aimed at a command center and led to deaths and injuries, Putin said.
“The enemy’s use of such weapons cannot change the course of military operations in the area of military technology,” Putin said.
“We see ourselves as having the right to use our weapons against the forces of countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Putin said. “If anyone doubts this, then they are wrong – there will always be an answer.”
Russia controls 18% of Ukraine including all of Crimea, which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014, 80% of the Donbas – the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk – and more than 70% of the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, as well as less than 3% of the Kharkiv region and a sliver of the Mykolaiv region.
Ukraine and the West say the 2022 entry was an attempt to take over Ukraine’s territory and fear that Russia could attack NATO membership one day if Putin wins Ukraine.
Putin said that Moscow tested a new medium-range hypersonic non-nuclear ballistic known as “Oreshnik” (the hazel) by firing it at a missile and defense business in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where the company pivdenmash of weapons and space rockets, is known as. Yuzhmash and the Russians, built.
He said the attack on the business was successful.
Russia, he added, was developing short- and medium-range weapons based on the planned production and shipment by the United States of medium and short-range powder in Europe and the east.
“I believe that the United States made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the agreement on the elimination of intermediate and short-range weapons in 2019 by deception,” Putin said, referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF). ) Agreement.
The United States formally withdrew from the 1987 INF Treaty with Russia in 2019 after claiming that Moscow was violating the treaty, the Kremlin alleged.
Putin imposed a unilateral freeze on the production of ballistic missiles previously banned by the INF treaty. He said Russia’s future actions will depend on the actions of the West – and threaten Russia.
“Let me remind you that Russia has made a voluntary, non-cooperative commitment not to deploy medium- and short-range weapons until such time as American weapons of this type have been seen anywhere in the world.”
(Reporting by Marina Bobrova and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; and Maxim Rodionov in London; Editing by Andrew Denga)