1 month ago
Last Updated: March 13, 2024, 13:57 IST
Moscow, Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Director General of Rossiya Segodnya media group Dmitry Kiselyov during an interview in Moscow, Russia, March 12, 2024. (Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via Reuters)
Putin warns West of nuclear readiness amid Ukraine tensions. Offers talks while asserting Russian sovereignty
President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday Russia was “ready” for nuclear war and that if the US crossed its red line and sent troops to Ukraine. Speaking days before the election starting later this week, Putin said the nuclear war scenario was not “rushing” up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question about whether the country was ready for a nuclear war. Putin, who is likely to secure another six years in power, said the US understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory, it would treat the move as an intervention. “…I don’t think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this,” Putin said.
“I hate to say it, but I don’t trust anyone. But we need guarantees,” Putin said regarding the likelihood of Ukraine peace talks“I hate to say it, but I don’t trust anyone. But we need guarantees. And the guarantees must be spelled out, they must be guarantees that would… pic.twitter.com/wZvBFRoGo8
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 13, 2024
‘Guarantees’
On Ukraine peace talks, Putin said he hates to say it, but he doesn’t “trust anyone.” Russia needs guarantees, he said. “And the guarantees must be spelled out, they must be guarantees that would suit us and that we would believe in. This is what we are talking about. But right now it is probably too early to talk publicly about what it could be. But we will certainly not buy into some empty promises,” he was quoted as saying by Sputnik.
Putin’s nuclear warning came alongside another offer for talks on Ukraine as part of a new post-Cold War demarcation of European security. Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other. Kyiv says it is defending itself against an imperial-style war of conquest designed to erase its national identity. Russia says the areas it controls in Ukraine are now Russia.
Putin has sent a series of public nuclear warnings to the U.S. aimed at discouraging greater involvement in Ukraine. Putin reiterated the use of nuclear weapons was spelled out in the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which it would use such a weapon: broadly a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is put under threat.” “Weapons exist in order to use them,” Putin said. “We have our own principles.”
American broadcaster CNN reported on Saturday the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden was specifically concerned in 2022 that Russia might use a tactical or battlefield nuclear weapon in Ukraine. Putin said he had never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Putin said Russia was ready for serious talks on Ukraine. “Russia is ready for negotiations on Ukraine, but they should be based on reality – and not on cravings after the use of psychotropic drugs,” Putin said. Last month, Reuters reported. that Putin’s suggestion of a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the US.
(With agency inputs)
