Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday threatened Western nations with the prospect of nuclear war, saying Moscow has the ability to strike “targets on their territory” if they continue supporting Ukraine.
“(Western nations) must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” Putin said during his annual State of the Nation address to the Russian parliament. “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?!”
Putin’s warning comes after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suggested using frozen Russian assets to fund the Ukrainian war effort. In a Wednesday speech, she said there is “no stronger symbol and no greater use” for the Russian profits than to buy military equipment for Ukraine.
Days before, French president Emmanuel Macron said sending Western troops to Ukraine through NATO should not be “ruled out.” This idea has been rejected by Western allies such as Germany and the U.K., and NATO said there are currently “no plans” to deploy ground troops in Ukraine.
“Nothing should be ruled out,” Macron said Monday. “We will do anything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war.”
In response to such statements, Putin emphasized that Russia’s “strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness.” The country has been developing and testing new-generation hypersonic nuclear weapons since 2018, an undertaking that its leader had said is near completion. Some of the missiles have already been deployed, he added.
Putin also warned the West of “tragic consequences” if troops invade Russia, ignoring past failed invasions from Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte.
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” Putin said. “They think it (war) is a cartoon.”
Notably, his annual address comes two weeks before the Russian presidential election over the weekend of March 15-17, which will give Putin another six-year term.