Russia will strike new targets if US supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine. Russia warns US decision to supply Ukraine with rocket systems exacerbates conflict. President Vladimir Putin on Sunday (5/6/2022) warned the United States (US), Russia will strike new targets if the West supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine. The long-range missile will be used in a high-precision mobile rocket system. If long-range missiles are supplied, we will strike targets that we have not hit," Putin said in an interview with state television channel Rossiya-1. Putin said the range of Lockheed Martin's HIMARS system depends on the ammunition supplied. The range of the US-made missile is almost the same as the Soviet-made missile system that Ukraine already has. "This is nothing new. It basically doesn't change anything. It just replaces the weapons that Russia has destroyed," Putin said. Putin did not identify the targets Russia would attack. But he said the "commotion" around Western arms supplies was designed to defuse the conflict. Talking about the drones being sent by Western countries to Ukraine, Putin said Russian air defenses had "cracked it like a nut". Putin said Russia had destroyed dozens of Western-made drones. Russian officials warn the US decision to supply Ukraine with advanced rocket systems will exacerbate the conflict. But Putin said the delivery of the advanced rocket system would not bring about fundamental changes on the battlefield. When asked about Ukraine's grain exports, Putin said the best solution would be to send it via Belarus. But sanctions against Belarus must first be lifted. Since the Russian invasion on February 24, Ukrainian grain shipments from Black Sea ports have stalled and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are held in silos. Putin and Russian officials have never used the words war or invasion of Ukraine. They said the attack was a "special military operation" aimed at preventing persecution of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine. Putin also made the special military operation a turning point in Russia's history, namely Moscow's uprising against the US, which he says has humiliated Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The US Department of Defense supplies four HIMARS M142 systems along with the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System to Ukraine. The rocket system has a range of more than 40 miles or double the howitzer's range. President Joe Biden last week said Washington would supply Ukraine with the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS. The delivery comes after Biden received assurances from Kiev that the rockets would not be used to target Russia.
