President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if there is a threat to Russia’s statehood, sovereignty and independence, but he wants the United States to refrain from actions that could provoke a nuclear conflict. He said he was.
Putin’s statement was another blunt warning to the West ahead of this week’s presidential vote, in which Putin is almost certain to win another six years in office.
In an interview on Russian state television published early on Wednesday, President Putin described US President Joe Biden as a veteran politician who fully understands the potential risks of escalation, warning that the world is headed toward nuclear war. He said he did not think that there was.
At the same time, he said that Russia’s nuclear forces are fully ready and that “from a military-technical point of view, we are ready.”
Putin said the Russian government was ready to use nuclear weapons in the event of a threat to “the existence of the Russian state, the sovereignty and independence of our country.”
The Russian leader has repeatedly spoken about his readiness to use nuclear weapons since launching his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The latest of those threats came in last month’s State of the Union address, in which he warned Western countries that deepening involvement in fighting in Ukraine risked nuclear war.
Asked in an interview whether he had ever considered using nuclear weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin said there was no need to do so.
He also expressed confidence that Russia will achieve its goals on the Ukraine issue, leaving the door to negotiations open and stressing that any agreement requires firm guarantees from the West.
Putin says a recent surge in Ukrainian drone attacks deep in Russia is part of an effort to derail a three-day presidential election that begins Friday and is all but certain to win for Putin. said.
Russian authorities reported a new large-scale attack by Ukrainian drones early Wednesday. One of the drones crashed into an oil refinery in the Ryazan region, injuring at least two people and causing a fire.
One drone was shot down as it approached an oil refinery near St. Petersburg, and 30 others were shot down in southwestern Voronezh.
