Putin: Missile Deal Would Put West, Russia at War

Vladimir Putin on Thursday night threatened war between Russia and NATO if the West ends up providing missiles to Ukraine that are used to strike targets inside Russia. "This will mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are fighting Russia," the Russian president said in what Politico sees as a "final bid to scare off the West" ahead of a Friday summit between the US and the UK at the White House. The two countries, along with other allies, appear to be on the verge of allowing Kyiv to use longer-range missiles in order to hit Russian targets, and those plans will be discussed at the summit, the Guardian reports.

Allowing Ukraine to use such missiles would lift longstanding restrictions on their use by Kyiv, and Russia would consider it a "direct entry into the war" by the Western bloc, per CNN. As he headed to Washington, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to Putin's threat. "Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away. Ukraine has the right to self-defense," he told reporters while on a plane en route to DC. The Storm Shadow cruise missiles that the West could allow Ukraine to use are British-made, but military experts say such an allowance could open the door to also supplying Kyiv with ATACMS, tactical ballistic missile systems, from the US. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)