Allowing Kiev to use Western weapons system to strike Russian territory will effectively mean NATO's direct participation in a conflict against Russia, President Vladimir Putin has said.
"An attempt to substitute concepts is being made, because we are not talking about 'authorizing' or 'prohibiting' the Kiev regime from striking Russian territory. It already does so with the help of drones and other means. But when we're talking about the use of Western-made long-range precision weapons, it is a different matter entirely," Putin said in an interview with Russian television on Thursday.
"I have already mentioned this, and any experts will confirm, both in our country and in the West, that the Ukrainian army is not capable of [independently] carrying out strikes using Western modern, long-range precision systems. It cannot do this. This is possible only with the use of intelligence from satellites which Ukraine does not have. This data is only available from satellites of the European Union or the United States, in other words, from NATO satellites. That's the first point," Putin said.
"The second and very important, perhaps key point is that only NATO servicemen can make flight assignments to these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this," Putin said.
"So this is not about whether or not to allow the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia using these weapons, but about deciding whether or not NATO countries are directly involved in the military conflict or not. If such a decision is taken, it will mean nothing short of direct participation of NATO countries, the United States, European countries, in the war in Ukraine. This would constitute their direct participation, and this, of course, changes the very essence, the very nature of the conflict. It will mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries, are at war with Russia. And if this is so, bearing in mind the change in the very nature of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be posed to us," Putin said.
Putin's remarks come on the heels of President Biden's comments Tuesday that Washington was 'working out' whether to formally greenlight Kiev's use of US-made long-range strike systems to attack targets deep inside Russia.
During a visit to Kiev on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that the US might alter its current stance, saying Washington has been ready to do so "from day one" of the conflict and "will continue to do this" amid shifting circumstances.
Also on Wednesday, UK media reported that London has already quietly approved Kiev's use of Storm Shadow cruise missiles to target Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky has spent months lobbying Kiev's NATO sponsors to loosen formal restrictions on long-range weapons' use, complaining as recently as last week that no progress has been made on the issue. In an interview with Ukrainian media this week, Zelensky stressed that "if restrictions are lifted on some weapons for which there are no missiles available, that is not a lifting of restrictions. This is another way of not giving a positive decision on the use of the relevant weapons."
Alongside the British-French Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missile, Ukraine has an array of US-made long-range strike systems at its disposal, including ATACMS, JDAM-ER, MALD decoy missiles, and HARM anti-radiation missiles. Washington is reportedly also considering sending JASSM long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. These weapons are armed with a 450 kg penetrator warhead, and can be fired distances 370-925 km away, depending on variant.
The proposed shift in policy marks a stark departure from President Biden's comments in May of 2022 that Washington would not "send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia." The US gradually shifted course over time, first delivering the offensive systems, and in May of this year, reportedly quietly authorizing Kiev to use them to attack military targets inside Russia. Ukraine's military has also been known to liberally use its NATO-provided weapons for terror attacks against civilian infrastructure and housing in both rural and urban areas in the Donbass, Zaporozhye and Crimea.