Putin warns West against aiding Ukraine with longer-range rockets

Kyiv: Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West against aiding Ukraine with arms such as longer-range rocket systems, and his force claimed that they had destroyed Western military supplies, a first of such an airstrike into Kyiv in more than a month. His warning came in a TV interview aired on Sunday, Associated Press (AP) reported.

The Russian president's statement comes days after the US announcement of delivering Ukraine $700 million worth of security assistance. It includes four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, as well as helicopters, Javelin anti-tank systems, radars, and tactical vehicles.

AP reports that the attack proves Russia's capability and willingness to attack Kyiv, though Moscow is focusing on the eastern parts of Ukraine.

In the interview, Putin said, "All this fuss around additional deliveries of weapons, in my opinion, has only one goal: to drag out the armed conflict as much as possible." He claimed that these supplies do little change in Ukraine's military but only make up for the losses of similar rockets. If the long-ranger rocket supplies to Kyiv happen, Putin warned, Moscow will "draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, which we have plenty of, in order to strike at those objects that we haven't yet struck."

The US has suddenly stopped offering Kyiv longer-range weapons that could fire deep into Russia.

According to military analysts, Russia plans to annex Ukraine's eastern industrial Donbas region before the arrival of any US weapons, while Pentagon had informed that it would take three weeks to deliver Ukraine the promised assistance.

Meanwhile, Moscow accused the West of cutting communication lines, which had cancelled Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's trip to talks in Serbia on Monday. Serbia's neighbours reportedly closed the airspace.

The Russian strikes on Kyiv on Sunday had destroyed European supplied T-72 tanks and other armoured vehicles, according to Russian claims. But Ukraine's version is that the missiles only hit a train repair shop. The country's railway authority reported that the plant was hit by four missiles.

According to the authority, no equipment was stored in the facility, and AP verified that there were no remnants of any in the missile hit building. Ukraine has informed there were no casualties.

But another facility was also hit, and AP learned from nearby residents that it was a tank repair unit, while Ukraine forces told AP reporters that photography inside the facility is prohibited.

Meanwhile, in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, Russia continues a severe offensive. Ukrainian civilians and servicemen were reportedly wounded in rampant artillery shelling.

According to the UK miliary's daily intelligence update, Ukrainian counterattacks in Sieverodonetsk were "likely blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower." It also said that the Russian military partly takes aid from Luhansk separatists' reserve forces.