Vladimir Putin has warned the West that they’re “pushing towards World War Three”, after the UK and US allowed Ukraine to launch their missiles into Russia.
The Russian leader has responded by firing a new kind of hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile at a Ukrainian military facility.
Ukrainian air defences shot down six Kh-101 cruise missiles during the attack - though Volodymyr Zelensky's forces have remained silent on whether the ICBMs caused any damage.
Putin said the attack on Dnipro was carried out in response to US and UK interference in the war. On Wednesday, Ukraine fired British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time during the ongoing war.
Vladimir Putin has warned the West that they’re 'pushing towards World War Three'
Getty/Reuters
British Storm Shadow missiles have a range of 150 miles, meaning that Ukraine could now strike targets inside Russia.
And on Tuesday, Kyiv launched six American Army Tactical Missile Systems (Atacms) towards the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine to the north.
Speaking in a televised address to the nation, Putin said: “From this moment on … the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West acquired elements of a global nature.”
He added: “It is not Russia but the United States that has destroyed the international security system and by continuing to fight [in Ukraine], clinging to its hegemony, is pushing the entire world towards a global conflict.”
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Putin threatened the West
ReutersPutin brushed off the idea that the attacks could affect the war: “Our air defence systems repelled these attacks. The goals that the enemy set were not achieved.”
Following the Atacms launch, Putin threatened a “nuclear response” to any “joint attack” on Russia by Ukraine supported by a Western ally.
In a dire warning issued on Tuesday, Moscow said it “reserved the right” to use nuclear weapons in the event of “aggression” against Russia or Belarus with conventional weapons if it creates a “critical threat to their sovereignty”.
The Russian president also approved changes to the nation’s nuclear doctrine, setting out new conditions under which its arsenal could be used.
Earlier this week, Ukraine fired British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Russia Getty
Putin said the attacks on Dnipro were carried out in response to US and UK interference in the war
REUTERSThe update was proposed back in September and was approved on the 1,000th day of the conflict.
An attack from a non-nuclear state, if backed by a nuclear power, will now be treated as a joint assault on Russia.
Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s former military chief, has claimed that “World War Three has already begun”, with China, Iran, and North Korea now “standing openly beside Putin”.
The ex-commander-in-chief, who was sacked by Zelensky, said that the involvement of Russia’s allies means the conflict is now on a global scale.
“I believe that in 2024 we can absolutely believe that the Third World War has begun,” said Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine's envoy to the UK.
