Putin says US wading deeper into Ukraine war, calls missile supplies a ‘mistake’
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Russia's President Vladimir Putin said in a news conference that the US is "becoming more and more personally drawn into" the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
PHOTO: AFP
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BEIJING – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the United States is wading deeper into the Ukraine conflict
Mr Putin told a news conference during a visit to China that he had briefed President Xi Jinping “in some detail” about Ukraine. He said “external factors” and “common threats” served only to strengthen Russia-Chinese cooperation.
The Kremlin chief said Washington’s decision to supply the long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS),
“Firstly, this of course causes harm and creates an additional threat. Secondly, we will of course be able to repel these attacks. War is war,” Mr Putin said.
“But most importantly, it fundamentally lacks the capacity to change the situation on the line of contact at all... This is another mistake by the United States.”
Ukraine had repeatedly asked Washington for ATACMS to help it attack and disrupt supply lines, air bases and rail networks in Russian-occupied territory.
Said Mr Putin: “A mistake of a larger scale, as yet invisible but still of great importance, is that the US is becoming more and more personally drawn into this conflict.”
“And let no one say that they have nothing to do with this. We believe they do.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky had said ATACMS had “proven” itself, following successful, high-precision strikes on airfields near Luhansk in Ukraine’s east and in Berdiansk in the south, on the Sea of Azov, both under Russian control.
Mr Zelensky’s comments marked the first confirmed use in Ukraine of the missiles, which can fly up to 310km. The country’s Defence Ministry promised on X, formerly Twitter, that there would be “more news to come”.
Kyiv’s Western partners have been careful about supplying long-range missiles needed for its four-month-old counteroffensive, fearing it would provoke the Kremlin. It is not clear how many ATACMS missiles Ukraine has.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said a new chapter of the war had begun, writing on social media platform X: “There are no more safe places for Russian troops within the... internationally recognised borders of Ukraine.”
Mr Putin on Wednesday noted that the United States had also sent two aircraft carrier groups to the Mediterranean in response to the explosion of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, and said he had ordered Russian planes with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to patrol over the Black Sea.
He added it was good that the West was starting to talk about the need to solve the Ukraine crisis by peaceful means, though he did not cite examples.
Russia has long said it is willing to negotiate, but only if Kyiv accepts “new realities”, meaning Moscow’s occupation of more than a sixth of Ukraine.
Kyiv insists on a full withdrawal of Russian forces, including from the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
