Putin Warns of Retaliation After Ukraine Gains Approval for Long-Range Strikes

Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States have lifted all restrictions on the range of weapons supplied to Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced.

“There are no longer any range limitations on the weapons delivered to Ukraine — not from the British, not from the French, not from us, and not from the Americans,” he said.

According to Merz, Ukraine can now defend itself, including by striking military targets inside Russia.

“Until recently, with very few exceptions, Ukraine was unable to do this. Now it can use what we call in military jargon ‘Long Range Fire’ to attack military targets in the rear. That’s a decisive factor,” the chancellor emphasized.

In response to ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes on targets inside Russia in November last year, President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow considered itself entitled to use weapons against military targets in the countries that allow their weapons to be used against Russian sites. In the event of escalation, "we will respond just as decisively and symmetrically," he warned. Earlier, Putin said that lifting restrictions on Kyiv’s use of Western long-range missiles would mean that NATO countries were “at war with Russia.”

Back in November, then-US President Joe Biden had lifted the restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range ATACMS missiles to strike targets inside Russia. The White House later confirmed that Washington had authorized Kyiv to use ATACMS "for self-defense, in cases of urgent necessity." These strikes focused on Russia’s Kursk region.

Josep Borrell, who at the time headed the EU’s foreign policy arm, later clarified that Ukraine had been granted permission to carry out strikes up to 300 kilometers in range.

Current US President Donald Trump said in December that he did not agree with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia not to fuel the war.

In response to the ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes on targets in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions, Putin said Russia retaliated with the use of the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile. He later warned that Moscow could strike with Oreshnik again, but was in no rush.

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Oreshnik (Russian: Орешник, lit. 'Hazel tree'), is a Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) characterized by its reported speed exceeding Mach 10 (12,300 km/h; 7,610 mph; 3.40 km/s), according to the Ukrainian military. The missile is equipped with six warheads, each reportedly containing submunitions, and has been described as highly difficult to intercept, though modern ballistic missile interceptors are designed to counter this type of system. Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh has identified the Oreshnik as a variant of the RS-26 Rubezh IRBM.