Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday commented on Stoltenberg's words to eliminate banning Ukraine from using Western weapons to strike targets in Russia, the Russian service of the BBC quoted him as saying.
"If he (Stoltenberg) talks about the possibility of striking Russian territory with high-precision long-range weapons, he, as a person who leads a military-political organization, although he is a civilian like me, but still he should know , that the long-range precision weapon cannot be used without means of space reconnaissance,", Putin said after his visit to Uzbekistan.
According to him, in the case of such strike systems as Storm Shadow, target selection and flight mission will be carried out "without the presence of Ukrainian military personnel".
"Who does this? This is done by those who manufacture and those who allegedly supply these strike systems to Ukraine. In general, it can and does happen without the participation of Ukrainian military personnel," said the Russian leader.
"So. These representatives of the NATO countries, especially in Europe, especially in the small countries, should generally be aware of what they are playing with. They should remember that these are, as a rule, countries with a small territory and a very dense population. And this is a factor that they should consider before they talk about striking deep into Russian territory," Putin said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of today's meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels that Ukraine should be able to use Western-supplied weapons to strike "legitimate targets" on Russian territory, otherwise the hands of the armed forces of Ukraine are tied and they cannot defend themselves effectively.
According to the head of NATO, it is time to review these restrictions.