It’s crazy strange to see violent criminals getting upset with defenders and the police, wanting to direct their actions. Don’t you think? The latest instance happened on September 12, 2024, when Russian President Vladimir Putin got shirty at the suggestion that Nato might allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia with Western-supplied long-range missiles. It would be tantamount to becoming directly involved in the war and would change the nature of the conflict, he huffed.

‘If this decision is taken, it will mean nothing less than the direct involvement of Nato countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine,’ Putin told Russian state television. It is the manifestation of Putin’s irrational fear of Nato; he is desperate to stop Ukraine becoming a member. Not that Nato would ever invade or attack Russia – it’s a defence pact. To Putin, who breaks international rules for breakfast, that is meaningless.

‘This will be their direct participation, and this, of course, will significantly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.’ Only bullets fired by Ukraine must stop at the border.

Putin added that Russia will make ‘appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us’. What gall. It would be an entirely appropriate response to your army trampling on Ukrainian soil, bombing and blasting the country, you murderer.

As reported in The Epoch Times, Kyiv has been requesting long-range weaponry, including the US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and British Storm Shadow missiles, to be used in Russian territory, with Zelensky warning Western leaders that delaying such a decision allows Russia to relocate its army deeper into its territory. And thump Putin.

‘So, if our partners lift restrictions, it would be highly desirable for this to be part of Ukraine’s victory strategy, rather than just a political strategy. Lifting restrictions should mean truly lifting them,’ Zelensky said in a September 12 statement following his meeting with US and British officials.

Listen, Vladimir Putin, you are the aggressor. It is your army invading and attacking Ukraine against all international norms and laws, and in breach of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum to which the Russian Federation is a signatory. You don’t have a right to be indignantly threatening when Ukraine and her supporters put up a fight. Ukraine is entitled to not just return fire in any way it wants, but to take you into custody and try you for war crimes, you thug. It’s not your call to decide where or how Ukraine defeats your invading military.

In a house invasion, the gang can’t dictate terms to the SWAT team called to evict them.

It is a sad indictment of the West that instead of scoffing at him, it collectively quakes in its boots at Putin’s veiled threats. Moscow has no ‘aggressor’s’ rights, other than to the humanitarian laws that govern armed conflicts – which, incidentally, the Russian army has not respected, as evidence of its war crimes has shown. Wimps of the West, egged on by some media, are worried that Ukraine shooting long-range missiles into Russia will prompt Putin to unleash a third world war. No, it won’t. Putin may be bad but he isn’t mad. His threats are part of his strategy, basically a negotiating tactic. It works only if the West continues to show no resolve, whimpering about ‘escalation’. (As the Biden administration does in the Middle East.)

But then the US has often been so hesitant, so slow in its delivery of crucial weapons to support Ukraine (weapons delayed is weapons denied), it is no surprise that Putin feels emboldened to swagger around and lecture us. As of September 15, 2024, US President Joe Biden was still stalling on a decision on allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russia. Let’s not upset the criminal…

‘If you look at the way that we fight wars, Nato and the US, we are very precise. We make sure that we minimise casualties. Targeting civilians is just anathema. So that’s our definition of victory. If we prevail over the rest… That’s not Putin’s. Putin’s definition of victory is preventing Ukraine from becoming part of Nato,’ former US intelligence analyst and author of Putin’s Playbook, Rebekah Koffler told me during research. ‘He’s just hoping to deny victory to the West and to Nato. That’s his definition of victory…’

Andrew L. Urban is the co-author of ‘Zelensky – the unlikely hero who defied Putin and united the world’ and ‘Volodymyr Zelensky the front line President’ (Wilkinson Publishing).