Putin warns West against supplying Ukraine long-range missiles

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with Kyiv's allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles including long-range US ATACMS and British Storm Shadows deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow's ability to launch attacks.

In some of his most hawkish comments on the subject yet, Putin said such a move would drag the countries supplying Kyiv with long-range missiles directly into the war since satellite targeting data and the actual programming of the missiles' flight paths would have to be done by NATO military personnel because Kyiv did not have the capabilities itself.