Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Western countries that they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, emphasizing that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West.

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 spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear warning on Thursday was one of his most explicit.

Addressing lawmakers and other members of the country’s elite, the Russian President reiterated his claim that the West aims to weaken Russia. He suggested that Western leaders may not fully grasp the implications of their interference in what he framed as Russia’s internal affairs.

Preceding his nuclear warning, Putin specifically referred to an idea proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. Macron suggested the possibility of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine, a proposal promptly 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. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?!” said Putin. Speaking ahead of a March 15-17 presidential election when he is certain to be re-elected for another six-year term, he lauded what he said was Russia’s vastly modernized nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.

“Strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness,” he said, noting that new-generation hypersonic nuclear weapons he first spoke about in 2018 had either been deployed or were at a stage where development and testing were being completed. Visibly angry, Putin suggested Western politicians recall the fate of those like Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte who had unsuccessfully invaded Russia in the past.

“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” said Putin. “They think it (war) is a cartoon,” he said, 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.

The Russian President highlighted Russia’s edge on the Ukrainian battlefield, advancing in various locations. In response to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, he underlined the need to strengthen troop presence along the western borders with the EU.

Dismissing the idea of Russian forces extending beyond Ukraine as “nonsense,” Putin pledged to avoid a budget-draining arms race, emphasizing the development of the defense-industrial complex. While open to nuclear talks with the US., he suggested Washington’s lack of genuine interest, accusing the West of attempting to dictate negotiations in their favor, particularly on the eve of the US Presidential election, as a show of global dominance.