“This is a deliberate distortion of the context,” the Kremlin said.
Moscow:
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks about nuclear weapons in an interview with state media did not constitute a threat to use nuclear weapons and accused the United States of deliberately taking them out of context.
Putin said in an interview published on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that sending U.S. troops to Ukraine would be seen as a significant escalation of the conflict.
Commenting on Putin’s remarks, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Washington understood the Russian leader was reaffirming Moscow’s nuclear doctrine but accused Russia of deploying “reckless and irresponsible” nuclear weapons throughout the Ukraine conflict. speech.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Putin was only responding to reporters’ questions on the subject and reiterated what is known about the scenario in which Russia would theoretically be forced to use nuclear weapons.
Peskov also drew attention to Putin saying in the same interview that the idea of using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine had never occurred to him.
Asked about the White House’s comments, Peskov said:
“This was deliberately taken out of context. Putin did not make a threat to use nuclear weapons in this interview. The president was only talking about the reasons that might make the use of nuclear weapons inevitable.
“These are the reasons stated in our relevant documents and are known to the whole world. In addition, everyone in the West deliberately failed to pay attention to what he said: he never thought of using tactical nuclear weapons (in Ukraine), despite the fact that they appeared during the fighting Various situations.
“This is a deliberate misrepresentation of context and an unwillingness to listen to President Putin.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
