Putin’s fresh nuke threat
He’ll strike at West if Russia becomes target
Vladimir Putin has warned he is ready to launch nuclear strikes against the West if russia’s existence is threatened.
His fresh outburst comes just days ahead of an election in which he is guaranteed to win another six-year term. But with his country under attack from Ukrainian drones, the Russian president said he is ready to use nuclear weapons in case of a threat to “the existence of the Russian state, our sovereignty and independence”.
He added: “All that is written in our strategy, we haven’t changed it.”
In a warning to NATO, Putin added: “Nations that say they have no red lines regarding Russia should realise that Russia won’t have any red lines regarding them either.”
But he insisted there is no need for nuclear attacks on Ukraine at the moment, despite Kyiv launching 58 drones over six regions yesterday.
Putin also said in a Russian state TV interview he does not think the world is heading for a nuclear war, describing US President Joe Biden as
They must know we won’t have any red lines either VLADIMIR PUTIN GIVES WARNING TO NATO
a veteran politician who fully understands escalation.
But he warned Kyiv and its Western allies they will eventually have to accept a deal to end the Ukraine war on Russian terms.
Putin said: “It shouldn’t be a break for the enemy to rearm but a serious talk involving the guarantees of security for the Russian Federation.”
He spoke after one of Ukraine’s drone strikes hit an oil refinery in the Ryazan region, injuring two people and setting off an enormous blaze.
Russia claims it shot down all 58 drones. It was the second day of Ukrainian strikes deep inside enemy territory, launched to shake Putin’s strongman image and make his country look vulnerable to attack.
There were massive attacks on refineries on Tuesday, hundreds of miles inside Russia, marking a step up in intensity of Kyiv’s retaliation to the two-year-old war.
The strikes are a major blow to the Russian economy and are boosting fuel prices for the country.