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LAST UPDATE | 5 Jun 2022
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR Putin has warned that Moscow will strike new targets if the West supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine and said new arms deliveries to Kyiv were aimed at “prolonging the conflict”.
If Kyiv is supplied with long-range missiles, “we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms…. to strike targets we haven’t hit before,” Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.
In extracts of an interview to be broadcast late Sunday on Rossiya-1 television, Putin did not specify exactly which targets could be hit nor the exact range of the missiles to which Moscow would react.
But his comments came just days after the United States announced it would supply Ukraine with Himars multiple launch rocket systems, a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles up to 80 kilometres away.
US President Joe Biden has nevertheless ruled out supplying Ukraine with systems that could reach as far as Russia, despite Kyiv’s repeated demands for such weapons.
Putin said that there was “nothing new” in the weapons supplied by Washington to Kyiv, and that Ukrainian forces had at their disposal weapons “similar to Soviet- or Russian-made systems”.
“From what we know and understand today, they are systems using missiles with range of 45-70 kilometres”.
Putin said that the sole aim of the West supplying arms to Ukraine was “to prolong the conflict for as long as possible”.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the battle for Ukraine’s eastern city of Severodonetsk was being waged street by street, while explosions rocked the capital Kyiv early this morning.
“Several explosions in Darnytsky and Dniprovsky districts of the city. Services are extinguishing,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging platform shortly after air raid warnings sounded in Kyiv and several other cities.
“There are currently no dead from missile strikes on infrastructure. One wounded was hospitalised. The services are still working in the affected areas.”
‘Extremely difficult’
“The situation in Severodonetsk, where street fighting continues, remains extremely difficult,” Zelensky said in his daily address yesterday evening.
Severodonetsk is the largest city still in Ukrainian hands in the Lugansk region of the Donbas, where Russian forces have been gradually advancing in recent weeks after retreating or being repelled from other areas, including around the capital Kyiv.
Russia’s army claimed some Ukrainian military units were withdrawing from Severodonetsk but Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said Ukrainian forces were fighting to retake the city.
Earlier, Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said the Russians had captured most of Severodonetsk, but that Ukraine’s forces were pushing them back.
“The Russian army, as we understand, is throwing all its power, all its reserves in this direction,” said Gaiday.
Moscow claims to have destroyed two Ukrainian command centres and six ammunition depots in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Pope Francis renewed calls today for “real negotiations” to end what he called the “increasingly dangerous escalation” of the conflict in Ukraine.
“As the fury of destruction and death rages and clashes flare, fuelling an escalation that is increasingly dangerous for all, I renew my appeal to the leaders of nations: Please do not lead humanity to destruction,” the pontiff said from the window of the apostolic palace in St Peter’s Square.
More than a hundred days since the start of the war, the pope called for “real negotiations for a ceasefire and a solution” to end it.
On Saturday, the 85-year-old pope confirmed his desire to visit Ukraine, but said he wanted to wait for “the right moment”.
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Ukraine is fighting for the World against Hitler-Stalin-Pol Pot-Audi Amin
@trebloc01: don’t forget Bin Lada
@trebloc01: they should have called the ghost busters for that fight.
Moscow should be given a taste of its own medicine by a strategic bombing by NATO. How dare Putin invade a sovereign independent country.
@Niall O’Reilly: yea good idea let NATO attack Russia that cant see and that going bad at all.
@Niall O’Reilly: The problem is, as the Russian ambassador in George Orwell Rd told us before the invasion kicked off, “anyone thinking of invading Ukraine would have to be insane”. Of course they should be given a dose of their own medicine, but next minute the obviously insane Russian leader would have the nukes flying. We must though insist on frozen Russian assets being given to Ukraine as war reparations. Every last cent of them.
@Roy Dowling: yes I don’t want WW3 either but a bully needs to be stood up against. It needs to be done Putin style ( without overt NATO involvement).
@Nicholas Grubb: standing up to a bully who has invaded your country takes more than sanctions. Ukraine should be empowered to strike fear and horror into Moscow after what has occurred in a sovereign country. Many Russians see Ukraine a bit like how the Tudors saw Ireland in the 16th century – their territory along with a loathsome attitude to Irish culture. This means Ukraine must have effective weapons to use against their aggressor.
Russia hasn’t forgotten the rest of the Ukraine……
Putin to the West: “Stop giving Ukraine weapons so we can conquer them quicker!!”
@Ryan O’Rourke: but then the west to Putin. We’re going to sanction you for being a evil dictatorship and attacking your neighboring country, also the west to Saudi Arabia can we buy more oil from you doesn’t matter your an evil dictatorship that attacked your neighboring country. So the irony is lost on both the Putin and the west. Neither of them are making sense
@Roy Dowling: Trouble is that the oil is mostly in the hands of evil dictatorships because we’ve used the rest.
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@Rob Jones: what makes you think that?
@Rob Jones: to much green Rob?
New target’s could be attacked! What’s taking the bounty hunters soo long? Jeeeeze those poor people.
Putin now has his back to the wall and his options are running out. Who is going to blink first …. Sorry who is going to blink second… the West and NATO have already blinked first.
Why tell the world, if giving just give.
Cut the bull
Jesus stated: “But ye will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not disturbed; for all [these things (also announced in Daniel 11:29)] must take place, but it is not yet the end [τελος - fulfillment (of the sign)]“. (Matthew 24:6, DARBY) The global nuclear war, (this will be the fulfillment of the sign of Jesus), will begin as a result of ethnic conflict, “for nation will rise against nation”, like as in 2008 in Georgia. (Matthew 24:7) This will be a mutual slaughter and world war not only by name. And the great power sword will be used. (Revelation 6:4) Jesus characterized him in this way: “A frightening things both and extraordinary (related to unusual phenomena) from sky powerful will be.” (Luke 21:11) Because of the use of these terrible weapons there will be significant tremors along the length and breadth of the regions [of strategic importance] and famines, and pestilences. Some ancient manuscripts contain the words “and frosts”. The Aramaic Peshitta: “and will be great frosts”. (Luke 21:11) We call this today “nuclear winter”. In Mark 13:8 there are also words of Jesus: “and disorders” (in the sense of confusion and chaos). The Aramaic Peshitta: “and confusion” (on the state of public order). This extremely detailed sign fits only one war. It won’t be Armageddon. “But all these things are a beginning of birth-pains.” (Matthew 24:8, DLNT)
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