Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that the NATO alliance would be "at war" with his country if Ukraine gets approval to use long-range missiles provided by the West to strike inside Russia.

Putin stated to a Russian reporter that Ukraine "is already striking with the help of drones and other means, but when it comes to using high-precision long-range Western-made weapons, it's a completely different story," adding that Ukraine would not have the technology to be able to do this without the help of the EU or the United States. "This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict … It would mean that NATO countries, The United States, European countries, are at war with Russia."

This comes a day after United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated that President Joe Biden is expected to lift a ban on British Storm Shadow Missiles being used by Ukraine to fire into Russia with the help of US-made technology. The United States and the United Kingdom reportedly resumed conversations regarding the utilization of Storm Shadows following the shipment of new Iranian weaponry to Russia.

"Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians," Blinken said. "This is a threat, not only to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people but to all of Europe."

Blinken traveled to Ukraine on Wednesday to meet with Ukraine's Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, to discuss the lift on the ban and is expected to return to Washington, DC on Friday with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to further the conversations.
 

In February, Putin discussed the possibility of the US and Europe sending troops from NATO countries to fight with Ukraine, saying that they “must, in the end, understand” that “all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization.”

“We also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory,” he said. “Do they not understand this?”