The Russian president’s personal correspondent Pavel Zarubin published a video in his Telegram channel on Sunday morning in which Vladimir Putin responds to a question whether Western countries ‘heard’ his words about the consequences of possible strikes deep into Russia with Western weapons.
‘They have not informed me anything about it. But I hope they have heard it. Because, of course, we will have to make some decisions for ourselves too,’ Putin replied.
‘It’s not about whether or not someone will be allowed to use these weapons deep into Russian territory. Ukrainian troops cannot use these weapons on their own, only specialists from NATO countries can do so,’ he added.
Putin has already repeatedly argued that the use of Western long-range weapons is only possible with NATO involvement.
‘The only question is whether they will allow themselves to launch strikes deep into Russian territory or not,’ Putin continued. – And, naturally, we will have to respond accordingly. How to react, when, where exactly – it’s a bit early to talk about that.’
‘But, of course, our military department is thinking about it and will offer various options for response,’ Putin summarised.