Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a stark warning to Western nations on Thursday, cautioning that their deployment of troops to Ukraine could lead to a nuclear conflict.
The warning, one of Putin’s most explicit on the matter, comes amid the heightened tensions surrounding the war in Ukraine, which has strained Moscow’s relations with the West to the worst since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Addressing lawmakers and members of the country’s elite, the 71-year-old Russian leader accused the West of seeking to weaken Russia and asserted that Western leaders did not fully comprehend the potential danger of their involvement in what he framed as Russia’s internal affairs.
Putin’s nuclear warning was prompted by French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent suggestion of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine, an idea swiftly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain, and others.
In his address, Putin emphasized that Russia possesses weapons capable of striking targets in Western territories. He emphasized the serious risk of conflict involving the use of nuclear weapons and the catastrophic consequences for civilization.
Putin questioned whether Western leaders grasped the gravity of the situation, stating, “(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?!”
With the upcoming March 15-17 presidential election, where Putin is expected to secure another six-year term, he boasted about Russia’s extensively modernized nuclear arsenal, claiming it to be the world’s largest.
Putin highlighted the full readiness of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces and the deployment or near-completion of new-generation hypersonic nuclear weapons he had previously mentioned in 2018.
Expressing visible anger, Putin drew historical parallels, cautioning Western politicians to remember the fates of past invaders like Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte who failed in their attempts to invade Russia.
He warned that the consequences of a conflict now would be “far more tragic” and criticized Western politicians for their perceived lack of understanding of the realities of war due to a lack of similar security challenges faced by Russians over the last three decades.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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