President Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war.
Putin told that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries - the US and European countries - in the war in Ukraine."
"It is their direct participation," he said. "And, of course, this substantially changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict.”
He added: “If that is the case, we will take corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created to us.”
Speaking earlier in the day, Putin said: “This isn’t about allowing or banning the Kyiv regime from striking Russian territory. It does that already with drones and by other means.
"But when we talk about high-precision, long-range weapons made in the West this is a completely different matter... The Ukrainian army is not able to strike with modern, high-precision, long-range systems. It can’t do this.
"It is only possible with intelligence data from satellites that Ukraine doesn’t have, data that’s only from satellites of the European Union, the USA, Nato satellites."
"The key point," he added, "is that only servicemen of Nato countries can input flight missions into these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. Therefore this is not about permitting or not permitting the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons.
"This is about whether or not Nato countries take the decision to directly participate in the military conflict.”
