MOSCOW/KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia's defense ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles.

" (The Russian defense ministry) is thinking about how to respond to the possible long-range strikes on Russian territory, it will offer a range of responses," Putin told Russian state TV's top Kremlin reporter, Pavel Zarubin.

Putin said that it was too early to say exactly how Russia would react to such a move but that Moscow would have to respond accordingly and different options were being examined.

Asked if the West had heard Russia's warnings, Putin told Zarubin: "I hope they have heard. Because, of course, we will have to make some decisions for ourselves, too."

Putin said only NATO officers would be able to fire such weapons into Russia and they would need to use Western satellite data for targeting the weapons, so the question is "whether they will allow themselves to strike deep into Russian territory or not".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has for months been asking his Western allies for permission to use long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russian territory.

The United States and Britain signaled a decision on the matter was imminent last month, but later delayed the move after Putin warned they risked putting NATO "at war" with Moscow.

On the battlefield, the Russian defense ministry said on Sunday its military had advanced further in east Ukraine, capturing a frontline village just a few kilometers north of a key Ukrainian-held industrial hub.

Russian army units "liberated the settlement of Izmailovka", the Russian defense ministry said in a daily briefing, using the Russian spelling for the village.

The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Ukraine's air defenses downed 41 of 80 Russian drones launched overnight.

Agencies via Xinhua