Russia’s defense minister Sergey Shoigu reiterated the conditions for further advances of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, explaining that potential advances are directly tied to Western arms deliveries to Kiev.

“It depends on the weaponry that will be supplied,” Sergey Shoigu said in a brief remark to the TV program ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.’

“One thing must be clear to everyone,” Putin said during the event. “The longer the range of the Western systems that arrive in Ukraine, the further we will be forced to push the threat away from our borders. It’s obvious.”