©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony to launch production facilities in Russian regions held via video link in Stavropol region, Russia, March 5, 2024. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS/file Photo
By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin told the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for a nuclear war and that if the United States sent troops to Ukraine it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.
Putin, speaking ahead of the March 15-17 elections that will surely give him another six years in power, added that the scenario of nuclear war is not “rushed” and he sees no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“From a military-technical point of view we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and the RIA news agency when asked whether Russia was really ready for a nuclear war .
Putin said the United States understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory – or in Ukraine – Russia would treat the move as an intervention. Moscow says it has annexed four regions of Ukraine and says they are now fully part of Russia.
“(In the United States) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic moderation,” Putin said.
“Therefore, I don’t think everything is rushed here (nuclear clash), but we are ready for it.”
The Biden administration has said it has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, but has stressed the need to pass a stalled security aid bill that would ensure Ukrainian troops have the weapons they need to continue the war, now in its third year.
It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Putin’s remarks Wednesday, but the White House has said in the past that it saw no sign that Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons, despite what it calls “nuclear sabre-rattling” by Putin.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian presidential official, told Reuters in a statement that he viewed Putin’s nuclear warning as propaganda designed to intimidate the West.
“Realizing that things are going wrong, Putin continues to use classic nuclear rhetoric. With the old Soviet hope: ‘be afraid and retreat!'” said Podolyak, who said he believes such talk prove that Putin is afraid of losing the war. .
The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war, but says he has never felt the need to use weapons nuclear power in Ukraine.
NUCLEAR DOCTRINE
In an American election year, the West is grappling with how to support Kiev against Russia, which now controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory and is rearming much faster than the West and Ukraine.
Kiev says it is defending itself from an imperial-style war of conquest designed to erase its national identity. Putin says he sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022 to strengthen Russia’s security against a hostile West.
Putin reiterated that the use of nuclear weapons is spelled out in the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine, which lays out the conditions under which it would use such a weapon: generally a response to an attack using nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, or the use of conventional weapons. weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is endangered”.
“Weapons exist so that we can use them,” Putin said.
Putin’s nuclear warning came alongside another offer of talks on Ukraine as part of a new post-Cold War European security demarcation. The United States says Putin is not ready for serious talks on Ukraine.
Reuters reported last month that Putin’s proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the United States after intermediary contacts.
US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said this week that without more Western support, Ukraine would lose more territory to Russia, which would embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that it was in the U.S. interest to help Kiev reach a stronger position ahead of the talks.
Putin said Russia will need written security guarantees if a deal is reached.
“I don’t trust anyone, but we need guarantees, and the guarantees must be made explicit, they must be such that we can be satisfied,” Putin said.