Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday outlined what he said would justify “retaliatory strikes” against NATO members or other countries that intervened in Ukraine.
In an address to lawmakers, Putin said his armed forces would respond to any country that posed a “strategic threat” to Russia and its operations in Ukraine.
Experts have said that Russian officials have increased their number of threats to NATO as a strategic tactic in recent days.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described what a NATO ally would need to do in Ukraine to be justified in a military response against the ally. In this photo, Putin is seen delivering a speech at a session of the Advisory Council of the Russian Parliament in Saint Petersburg on April 27, 2022. Getty
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with state media that “essentially NATO will go to war with Russia through a proxy and arm that proxy.”
Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an April 13 interview that Russia will consider US and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as “legitimate military targets.”
Putin’s recent statements made his stance even clearer.
“But I also want to note something I talked about at the beginning of the military special operation. Let me reiterate: if someone intends to intervene from the outside and create a strategic threat to Russia that is unacceptable to us, they should know that our retaliatory strikes will be lightning-fast,” Putin said.
He added: “We have the tools we need to do this in a way that no one else can claim to have right now. We’re not just going to brag, we’re going to use them when the need arises. And I want everyone to know that; we’ve made all the decisions on that.”
The Financial Times noted that Putin’s words about “the tools we need to do it like no one else can right now claim it” may have been a reference to an ICBM capable of carrying nuclear payloads that Russia has recently tested.
Putin also claimed that Western entities influenced Ukrainians to develop a “Russophobic” state. He said this alleged anti-Russian sentiment, along with neo-Nazi influence, has spilled over into “historic Russian territory” in Crimea and Donbass, which he says needs the Kremlin to act.
The Russian president also claimed that sanctions imposed on Russia by other countries have not decimated the country’s economy. He said the measures taken by his government “repelled and blocked the very first crushing blow – as the West believed – of illegitimate sanctions against our country”.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.