Putin warns of risk of nuclear war, says Russia can strike Western targets

Vladimir Putin has warned Western countries that there is a real risk of a nuclear war if NATO sends troops to fight in Ukraine.

The Russian president said in his State of the Union address on Thursday that Moscow has the weapons to strike Western targets.

Addressing parliament and other members of the country’s elite, the 71-year-old again accused the West of being bent on weakening Russia and suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their interference in what he said was Russia’s internal affairs was.

He said: “[Western nations] It must be recognized that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory.

“All of this does threaten the use of nuclear weapons and a civilization-destroying conflict.

“Don’t they understand?!”

He advised Western leaders to remember the fate of men like Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and Napoleon Bonaparte in France, who had unsuccessfully invaded his country in the past.

He added: “But now the consequences will be even more tragic.

“they think [war] It’s a cartoon. “

His warning specifically referred to the idea floated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine.

This suggestion was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain and other countries.

Speaking ahead of Russia’s March 15-17 presidential election, Putin welcomed Russia’s highly modern nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Putin has previously warned of the dangers of direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.