Putin Warns of Nuclear War, Reveals Russia Can Strike West
Mar 1, 2024 16:13:53 GMT -5
Post by schwartzie on Mar 1, 2024 16:13:53 GMT -5
Putin Warns of Nuclear War, Reveals Russia Can Strike Western Targets
David Lindfield
March 1, 2024 - 8:17 am
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western nations that there is a genuine risk of nuclear war if they send their own troops to fight in Ukraine.
Addressing parliament and other members of the country’s elite on Thursday, Putin warned that Moscow has weapons that are capable of striking targets in the West.
Putin also repeated his accusation that the West is bent on weakening Russia.
He suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling in Russia’s internal affairs could be.
He prefaced his warning with a specific reference to an idea floated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
Macron suggested that European NATO members should send ground troops to Ukraine.
The suggestion, however, was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain, and others.
“(Western nations) must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” said Putin.
“All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?!”
Putin, who was speaking ahead of a March 15-17 presidential election when he is certain to be re-elected for another six-year term, lauded what he said was Russia’s vastly modernized nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Putin has previously warned of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.
Visibly angry, Putin, Russia’s paramount leader for more than two decades, suggested Western politicians recall the fate of those, like Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte, who unsuccessfully invaded his country in the past.
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” said Putin.
“They think it (war) is a cartoon,” he said.
He continued by accusing Western politicians of forgetting what real war meant because they had not faced the same security challenges as Russians had in the last three decades.
Russian forces now had the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine and were advancing in several places, Putin said.
Russia must also boost the troops it has deployed along its western borders with the European Union after Finland and Sweden decided to join the NATO military alliance, he added.
The veteran Kremlin leader dismissed Western suggestions that Russian forces might go beyond Ukraine and attack European countries as “nonsense.”
He also said Moscow would not repeat the mistake of the Soviet Union and allow the West to “drag” it into an arms race that would eat up too much of its budget.
“Therefore, our task is to develop the defense-industrial complex in such a way as to increase the scientific, technological, and industrial potential of the country,” he said.
Putin said Moscow was open to discussions on nuclear strategic stability with the United States but suggested that Washington had no genuine interest in such talks and was more focused on making false claims about Moscow’s alleged aims.
“Recently there have been more and more unsubstantiated accusations against Russia, for example, that we are allegedly going to deploy nuclear weapons in space,” he said.
“Such innuendo… is a ploy to draw us into negotiations on their terms, which are favorable only to the United States.”
“…On the eve of the U.S. presidential election, they simply want to show their citizens and everyone else that they still rule the world.”
link
David Lindfield
March 1, 2024 - 8:17 am
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western nations that there is a genuine risk of nuclear war if they send their own troops to fight in Ukraine.
Addressing parliament and other members of the country’s elite on Thursday, Putin warned that Moscow has weapons that are capable of striking targets in the West.
Putin also repeated his accusation that the West is bent on weakening Russia.
He suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling in Russia’s internal affairs could be.
He prefaced his warning with a specific reference to an idea floated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
Macron suggested that European NATO members should send ground troops to Ukraine.
The suggestion, however, was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain, and others.
“(Western nations) must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” said Putin.
“All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?!”
Putin, who was speaking ahead of a March 15-17 presidential election when he is certain to be re-elected for another six-year term, lauded what he said was Russia’s vastly modernized nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Putin has previously warned of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.
Visibly angry, Putin, Russia’s paramount leader for more than two decades, suggested Western politicians recall the fate of those, like Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte, who unsuccessfully invaded his country in the past.
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” said Putin.
“They think it (war) is a cartoon,” he said.
He continued by accusing Western politicians of forgetting what real war meant because they had not faced the same security challenges as Russians had in the last three decades.
Russian forces now had the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine and were advancing in several places, Putin said.
Russia must also boost the troops it has deployed along its western borders with the European Union after Finland and Sweden decided to join the NATO military alliance, he added.
The veteran Kremlin leader dismissed Western suggestions that Russian forces might go beyond Ukraine and attack European countries as “nonsense.”
He also said Moscow would not repeat the mistake of the Soviet Union and allow the West to “drag” it into an arms race that would eat up too much of its budget.
“Therefore, our task is to develop the defense-industrial complex in such a way as to increase the scientific, technological, and industrial potential of the country,” he said.
Putin said Moscow was open to discussions on nuclear strategic stability with the United States but suggested that Washington had no genuine interest in such talks and was more focused on making false claims about Moscow’s alleged aims.
“Recently there have been more and more unsubstantiated accusations against Russia, for example, that we are allegedly going to deploy nuclear weapons in space,” he said.
“Such innuendo… is a ploy to draw us into negotiations on their terms, which are favorable only to the United States.”
“…On the eve of the U.S. presidential election, they simply want to show their citizens and everyone else that they still rule the world.”
link
