Holt to Newsmax: Putin Threatens Berlin Over Ukraine Long-Range Missile Use

Retired Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said Thursday on Newsmax that Russian President Vladimir Putin is threatening to strike Berlin if Germany allows Ukraine to use long-range weapons, warning that the war is escalating toward a dangerous new phase.

Holt said Putin has threatened to strike Berlin in response to Germany's decision to lift range restrictions on long-range weapons sent to Ukraine, raising alarms about a broader expansion of the war.

Appearing Thursday on "The Chris Salcedo Show," Holt reacted to Germany's move following Russia's largest aerial assault on Kyiv since the beginning of the invasion.

"We are escalating. This is going to a very bad place," Holt said. "I think Germany probably got out in front of President [Donald] Trump's leadership on their announcement, but they're not going to be able to precisely target those missiles without everybody on the NATO side doing something."

Germany recently announced it would allow Ukraine to use German-supplied long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia — marking a significant shift in Western policy. Holt said the decision did not appear to be coordinated with the United States and warned that such a move could provoke a major retaliation from Moscow.

"Russia knows that. They've already thrown rocks in the other direction," Holt said. "You've actually got Putin right now threatening strikes on Berlin if they follow through with this."

Holt emphasized that Trump, who has said he wants to bring the war to an end, may not be receiving complete or timely intelligence from his national security team.

"What I'm concerned about is while President Trump, in good faith, is trying to end this war, he is not being served by his team," Holt said. "When they fail to advise him that the Ukrainians attempted an assassination of the Putin helicopter, [it leaves] President Trump to say Putin is crazy. Well, he might not have said that – had he had the facts."

Holt pointed to recent remarks by Trump during a press conference in which the president said he had not been informed of an apparent attempt by Ukraine to assassinate Putin using drones.

"In the exact same press conference, [Trump] said, 'I wasn't briefed that Putin had an assassination attempt on him,'" Holt said. "In other words, they can't fail right now in what they brief the president because we're getting very close to a very bad expansion of this war. As if it weren't ugly enough with over a million dead."

Trump issued a warning to Putin earlier this week, writing, "What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia. And I mean really bad. He's playing with fire."

That message came in the aftermath of Russia's missile barrage on Kyiv, which Ukrainian officials said was the most extensive aerial attack since the war began in 2022. It also followed Ukraine's launch of more than 100 drones across Russian territory, including near Moscow.

Holt said the rapidly escalating situation demands precise coordination and honest intelligence briefings at the highest levels to avoid a catastrophic expansion of the conflict.

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