Russia threatens to supply long-range weapons to enemies of the West

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened the West with providing its enemies with long-range weapons, in response to Ukraine's recent use of Western weapons to attack targets inside Russian territory.

Dmitri Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said during a Kremlin news conference that Western countries that supply such weapons to Ukraine "will bear the consequences." However, he avoided mentioning any nations specifically.

Peskov's statements came after the previous night, at a press conference with senior representatives from the international media as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin intensified threats against the United States and Europe and said that Russia could supply weapons to different entities that could attack various Western countries.

Putin spoke these words after U.S. President Joe Biden Russia discreetly authorized the Ukrainian military to use American weapons to attack targets inside Russian territory, although only in the Kharkiv region, where intense fighting is currently taking place, and after Germany gave Kiev similar permission.

Previously, the West had demanded that Ukraine not attack inside Russia using the weapons it supplied, in order not to increase the chances of a direct conflict between Western countries and Moscow.

At Wednesday night's press conference, Putin said: "If they believe that they can send such weapons to combat zones to attack our territory and create problems for us, why shouldn't we have the right to supply weapons of the same type to certain regions of the world where they can be used to attack sensitive facilities of the countries that do this to Russia?"

Putin added that the use of this weaponry by Ukraine to attack within Russian territory demonstrates the participation of Western countries in the war against Russia. “We reserve the right to act in the same way,” he said.

The Russian president also stated that his country does not rule out the use of nuclear weapons. After emphasizing that it was not he who raised the idea of using this type of weaponry, but that it is the Westerners who do it repeatedly. “For some reason, the West thinks that Russia will never use nuclear weapons. We have a nuclear doctrine, and look at what it says: if someone's actions threaten our sovereignty and our territorial integrity, as far as we are concerned, we can use all the means at our disposal. It cannot be taken lightly, superficially.”

France opens anti-terrorism investigation after former Russian soldier accidentally detonates explosives

Meanwhile, French authorities launched an investigation after a man with Russian and Ukrainian citizenship accidentally detonated explosives in a hotel room where he was staying in northern Paris, France.

The security forces that arrived at the scene found additional elements to make explosives.

The man received medical treatment for the severe burns he suffered in the incident. He will subsequently be taken for interrogation.

The man is a 26-year-old who comes from the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, largely occupied by Russia since 2014. The news agency AFP reported through a source that the man appears to have "pro-Russian" positions and that he fought for two years as part of or alongside the Russian military.