Mexico City.- Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West about the risk of nuclear war if they send their own troops to fight for Ukraine, adding that Moscow has the weapons to attack Western targets.
In his annual state of the nation address to the Russian elite on Thursday, Putin said claims that Russia intends to attack Europe are “nonsense,” but warned that his country could attack Western countries with nuclear weapons.
Putin referenced an idea raised by French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Monday said the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine “cannot be ruled out.” Several European leaders quickly rejected the suggestion.
“Everything they are inventing now, with which they threaten the whole world, all this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and, therefore, with the destruction of civilization, do you not understand it or what?” Putin said.
“Ultimately, you must understand that we also have weapons – and you know, as I said now – we also have weapons that can hit targets in your territory,” he warned.
Putin has raised the nuclear specter on several occasions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. The country transferred tactical nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus last year, and CNN reported this month that Moscow is trying to develop a nuclear space weapon that could destroy satellites.
His speech lasted more than two hours — breaking his previous record, according to Russian state media TASS — and came shortly before Russians vote in the March 17 presidential election, when Putin is expected to win a fifth term and extend his government at least until 2030.
The president also praised the progress of the Russian military, which he said was “confidently advancing in a number of operational areas and liberating more and more territories” and now “firmly maintains the initiative” in Ukraine, after the recent withdrawal of Kyiv from the eastern city of Avdiivka.
He confirmed that Russia will strengthen its military presence along its western border to “neutralize threats” from NATO expansion, after Finland and Sweden joined the alliance following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
