In emotional remarks, Putin also said the west was using Ukraine as a “tool to hinder Russia” and hypothesised that Ukraine’s entrance into Nato could lead to a conflict over Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
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On Tuesday, Putin railed against deliveries of lethal aid to Ukraine, saying he believed that the country was being “packed full of weapons”.
Earlier, Poland announced it would provide shells, mortars and surface-to-air missiles that would boost Ukraine’s defence against low-flying attack aircraft. The US, Britain and other European countries have stepped up deliveries of anti-tank weapons, ammunition and other military aid to Ukraine to ward off a potential invasion.
The Russian leader imagined a situation where Ukraine joined Nato and then sought to retake Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. “That’s sovereign Russian territory,” Putin said. “So now we have to start a war against the Nato alliance?”
“Did anyone think about this?” he asked hypothetically. “I don’t think so.”
“In this sense, Ukraine itself is just an instrument to achieve this goal,” he said. “This can be done in different ways, by drawing us into some kind of armed conflict.”