Ukraine Gets Range, Russia Gets Angry

Germany backs Ukrainian-made long-range weapons, lifting range limits. The Kremlin threatens Berlin directly. As Kyiv builds capability, Moscow’s fury grows and Western caution is running out of room.

LVIV, Ukraine — The threat came, as they often do these days, from a Telegram post.

“If German troops strike Moscow with German weapons… the only option left for us is to strike Berlin.” — RT.

The words, issued by Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia Today and reliable mouthpiece of the Kremlin, carried the unmistakable signature of menace. Her warning followed the announcement of a landmark agreement between Germany and Ukraine¹, a pact to produce long-range weapons on Ukrainian soil, with no restrictions on range, no pretense of caution. Berlin had finally shown resolve. Moscow responded with a flash of nuclear-era bravado.

Simonyan’s threat that German-supplied Taurus missiles, if used by Ukraine, could prompt direct retaliation against Berlin, was not idle bluster. It was calibrated escalation. She claimed Ukrainian forces lacked the technical capability to operate the Taurus without German personnel, laying a rhetorical foundation for justifying future strikes on German targ…