Russia warns the conflict could spread beyond Ukraine as weapons from the West flood in
- Russia is ramping up threats toward the West as weapons and other forms of support flow into Ukraine.
- Putin warned there would be "lightning-fast" retaliation should any country intervene in Ukraine.
Russia warned the West on Thursday that the conflict could spread beyond Ukraine as leaders of NATO countries pour heavy weapons into the eastern European country to help them fight Russian forces in the country's east and south.
"In the West, they are openly calling on Kyiv [the Ukrainian capital] to attack Russia including with the use of weapons received from NATO countries," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow, Reuters reported.
"I don't advise you to test our patience further," Zakharova added.
The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman suggested that Russia's aggression in Ukraine could spread beyond the country, days after Russia announced it would halt natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria and as tensions mount in a Russian-backed breakaway region of Moldova that borders Ukraine.
"Kyiv and West capitals should take the statement from the Ministry of Defense seriously that further inciting of Ukraine to strike Russian territory will definitely lead to a tough response from Russia," Zakharova said, according to Reuters.
Russian storage depots near its Ukraine border have recently suffered explosions, and Western powers like the UK are giving aid vital to Ukraine's self-defense that could be used to strike military targets inside Russia.
Additionally, the Kremlin said that moves by Western leaders to provide Ukraine with weapons and other military equipment threatened the security of Europe.
"In itself, the tendency to pump weapons, including heavy weapons, to Ukraine and other countries are actions that threaten the security of the continent and provoke instability," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, Reuters reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised this week that there would be "lightning-fast" retaliation should any country intervene in Russia's more than two month long war with Ukraine.
"If someone intends to intervene in the ongoing events from the outside, and create strategic threats for Russia that are unacceptable to us, they should know that our retaliatory strikes will be lightning-fast," said Putin, according to The Guardian.
Moscow, Putin said, has "all the tools for this," and said he "wanted everyone to know" Russia would "use them if necessary."
Russia has also ramped up nuclear threats in recent days. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday warned the West not to underestimate the risk of nuclear conflict.
"I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it," Lavrov said Monday, per Reuters.
Putin placed Russia's nuclear deterrence forces on high alert shortly after launching the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February, and experts have expressed concerns that the Russian leader could turn to weapons of mass destruction if the Russian military continues to face humiliating setbacks. Russia has struggled to make major gains on the ground in Ukraine — failing to take Kyiv — and has lost thousands of soldiers since the war began.
"Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they've faced so far, militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons," CIA Director William Burns, a former US ambassador to Russia, said earlier this month.