Putin threat of war with NATO highly unlikely: Security analyst

The Weekend View

Russian President Vladimir Putin THIS WEEK warned that any attack on his country by Ukraine using missiles supplied by Western nations is tantamount to NATO directly entering the war. He said any such move will receive the appropriate response. Ukraine's western allies have long resisted giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the green light to use their long-range ballistics against forces inside Russia, fearing Moscow could then escalate the war by retaliating against targets inside NATO countries. On Friday Britain and the U.S. discussed plans to allow Kyiv to strike targets inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles but nothing concrete has emerged from the talks. But could this signal a dangerous escalation of the Russia/Ukraine war? To help us answer that question Bongiwe Zwane spoke to Denys Reeva, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies