After Finland joined NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he wanted to secure his western border. From a “military-technical point of view,” Russia is ready for a nuclear war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has again threatened the West with the potential use of nuclear weapons and announced troop redeployments to the Finnish border. In an interview with the state TV channel Rossiya-1 and the RIA news agency on Wednesday, he said that Russia was ready for a nuclear war “from a military-technical point of view.” Weapons existed to be used. However, he does not think that we are rushing towards a nuclear confrontation.
In the conversation, he assumed that the USA would renew its nuclear forces and carry out nuclear weapons tests. In such a case, Russia would also consider starting new nuclear weapons tests. Referring to Ukraine, against which Russia has been at war for more than two years, Putin said there has never been such a need for the use of nuclear weapons there.
Putin again sharply criticized Finland’s accession to NATO in the interview conducted a few days before the Russian presidential election. This is “an absolutely senseless step” in terms of protecting our own national interests. Russia has never stationed troops on the Finnish border. “Now they will be there. There were no destruction systems there. Now they will show up there.”
Finland joined NATO last year, and Sweden recently joined the Western defense alliance. The two northern European countries decided to join after decades of military neutrality after Russia began its war of aggression against Ukraine. The northern expansion brought the NATO border closer to Russia, which Moscow sees as a threat.
Putin: Ready “for negotiations with Ukraine”
Putin said Russia was ready “for negotiations on Ukraine. But they should be based on reality – and not desires to take psychotropic drugs.” If an agreement is reached, Russia would insist on written security guarantees. “I don’t trust anyone. But we need guarantees, and guarantees have to be spelled out, they have to be such that we are satisfied.”
Putin has repeatedly accused the Ukrainian leadership of abusing drugs. He did not provide any evidence for this. So far, there have been no serious signals of a promising rapprochement between the warring parties. The war continues to rage with undiminished severity. Russia now controls almost a fifth of Ukraine’s territory and is arming itself much faster than the West and Ukraine. Kiev has repeatedly appealed to its supporters to supply more weapons, otherwise there would be a risk of defeat against Russia.
Ukraine continues large-scale drone attack on Russia
On Tuesday, Ukraine launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Russian territory, which continued on Wednesday. There were also reports of fighting on Russia’s western border with armed groups that were advancing from Ukraine and said they were made up of anti-Kremlin Russians. Putin said he was convinced that the attacks were aimed primarily at disrupting the Russian presidential election. Voting is scheduled from Friday to Sunday. Putin’s re-election is considered a foregone conclusion.
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