Amid reports that Kyiv’s allies were considering lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western-made missiles to strike deep inside Russia, Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that the move would mean that NATO was “at war” with Russia.
Speaking to journalists after a cultural forum in St. Petersburg, Putin claimed that the Ukrainian army did not possess the capabilities to carry out long-range missile strikes itself and that only NATO military personnel would be able to plot missile flight paths on Kyiv’s behalf, which would mean the “direct involvement” of NATO countries in the war and would “significantly change the very essence” of the conflict.
“It would mean that NATO countries — the US, and European countries — are at war with Russia”, Putin said, adding that Russia would “make corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be posed to us”.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who is set to meet with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday to discuss the issue, said that the UK did not “seek any conflict with Russia”.
“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away”, Starmer said, adding that the UK remained “fully supportive” of Ukraine’s right to defend itself.
During a joint visit to Kyiv with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy suggested that Western positions on Ukraine striking targets in Russia had been influenced by a recent delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles to Moscow, which he called a “significant and dangerous escalation”.
On Friday morning, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that the accreditation of six British diplomats stationed in Moscow had been revoked on suspicion of their involvement in espionage activities. The decision was made “on the basis of documents provided by the Russian FSB and as a response to numerous unfriendly steps by London,” the FSB said in a statement.