President Vladimir Putin warned Western countries that sending troops to fight in Ukraine could risk provoking a nuclear war, as Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West. The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin repeated his accusation that the West was bent on weakening Russia and suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling could be in what he cast as Russia’s own internal affairs.
Putin prefaced his nuclear warning with a specific reference to an idea floated by French President Emmanuel Macron of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine, which was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain, and others. He urged Western nations to realize that Russia also has weapons that can hit targets on their territory, which threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization.
Putin praised Russia’s vastly modernized nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world, and said strategic nuclear forces are in full readiness. He accused Western politicians of forgetting what real war meant because they had not faced the same security challenges as Russians had in the last three decades. Russian forces now have the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine and are advancing in several places. Russia must also boost the troops it has deployed along its western borders with the European Union after Finland and Sweden decided to join the NATO military alliance.
Putin dismissed Western suggestions that Russian forces might go beyond Ukraine and attack European countries as “nonsense” and said Moscow would not allow the West to “drag” it into an arms race that would eat up too much of its budget. He said Moscow was open to discussions on nuclear strategic stability with the United States but suggested that Washington had no genuine interest in such talks and was more focused on making false claims about Moscow’s alleged aims.
(Reuters)
