Putin: Russia-NATO conflict just one step from WW III

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West yesterday that a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War III.

The Ukraine war has triggered possible in the modern world.” the deepest crisis in Moscow’s “It is clear to everyone, that relations with the West this will be one step away from since the 1962 Cuban Missile a full-scale World War III. I Crisis. Putin has often warned think hardly anyone is interested of the risks of nuclear war, but in this,” Putin told reporters says he has never felt the need to after winning the biggest ever use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. landslide in post-Soviet Russian

French President Emmanuel history. Macron last month said Putin added, though, that he could not rule out the deployment NATO military personnel were of ground troops present already in Ukraine, saying in Ukraine in the future, with that Russia had picked up many Western countries distancing both English and French being themselves from that spoken on the battlefield. while others, especially in eastern “There is nothing good in Europe, expressed support. this, first of all for them, because

Asked by Reuters about the they are dying there and in large Macron remarks and the risks numbers,” he said. and possibility of a conflict Ahead of the March 1517 between Russia and NATO, Russian election, Ukraine Putin quipped: “Everything is stepped up attacks against Russia, shelling border regions and even used proxies to try to pierce Russia’s borders.

Asked if he considered it necessary to take Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Putin said if the attacks continued, Russia would create a buffer zone out of more Ukrainian territory to defend Russian territory.