Ukraine is no longer a target? Putin revealed who he will attack

"If the West allows Ukraine to do that, it will undermine international relations and international security."

If the West allows Ukraine to target Russia with missiles like Storm Shadow or Atacms, Russia will step up its air defense, Putin said, adding that Russia reserves the right to respond "in the same way" other countries would, which "draw them into the war against Russia", reports RIA.

At a meeting with representatives of international news agencies, the first conversation with foreign journalists after his re-election as president, Putin said that those who deliver weapons and operate them are taking a very dangerous step.

"Delivering weapons to a conflict zone is always a bad thing. This is a very serious and very dangerous step," Putin said today at a meeting with representatives of international news agencies and added, "German tanks in Ukraine were a moral shock for the Russians. If German rockets attack Russia, it would destroy relations between Russia and Germany," Putin said.

He said that he "understands" why Germany depends on the US and added that after World War II, West Germany was not an independent country. Putin stated that the more the German economy collapses, the more there will be an "earthquake" in the EU and the whole of Europe.

"German economy is the largest in Europe, and if it gets sick, it will affect the rest of the European Union."

German economy, everyone knows it well, no offense to other Europeans, but it is the locomotive of the European economy, it will sneeze and cough, and all other countries will get the flu,'' said Putin.

He said that the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine amounts to direct interference in the conflict. When it comes to the current situation in the war, Putin said that 4,465 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been captured, while Ukraine is holding around 1,300 Russian prisoners.

"Ukraine loses about 5,000 people a month, some killed, some wounded, and that is a very conservative estimate," Putin said, adding that the current mobilization in Ukraine will not change anything. He stated that during the mobilization last month, Kiev recruited around 50,000 soldiers, assessing that the mobilization in Ukraine takes place violently and nonviolently, but that people are now mostly violently captured on the streets, "because there are few who want to fight."

He estimated that it will take "up to a year" for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to leave his post.