Putin threatens the West: Russia is ready for a nuclear war

Russia remains in a state of combat readiness and is fully prepared for a nuclear war, President Vladimir Putin said, specifying that the Kremlin decides in which situations nuclear weapons could be used, reports Reuters. “Guns are there to be used. We have our own principles,” he said. However, Putin maintas that Russia is “not rushing towards a nuclear confrontation”.

In an interview with state media, Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is almost certain to win the March 15-17 presidential election, said Russia would be prepared to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty would be threatened.

“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin told Rossiya-1 television and the RIA news agency, in response to a question about whether the country is really ready for a nuclear war.

He said the United States understands that if it deploys American troops on Russian soil – or in Ukraine – Russia will treat the move as an intervention.

“(In the United States) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic deterrence,” Putin said. “Therefore, I don’t think that here everything is rushing towards it (nuclear confrontation), but we are prepared for this,” the Russian president also declared.

However, Putin said Russia has never faced the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, where conflict has been raging since February 2022. “Why do we need to use weapons of mass destruction? There has never been such a need,” the Russian president said.

How many nuclear weapons Russia has?