By Samia Nakhoul and Guy Faulconbridge
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the West was wrong to assume Moscow would never use nuclear weapons and said he was considering deploying conventional missiles within striking distance of the United States and Russia. your allies.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has triggered the worst collapse in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis – and the Kremlin has repeatedly warned that the risk of global war is rising.
Putin, speaking face-to-face with senior editors at international news agencies for the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, dismissed Western claims that Russia might attack NATO as “stupid”, citing the alliance’s military strength.
But when asked about the risk of nuclear war, the 71-year-old Kremlin chief said Russia’s nuclear doctrine permitted the use of such weapons if the country’s territorial integrity or sovereignty were threatened.
“For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use it,” Putin said when asked by Reuters about the risk of nuclear escalation in Ukraine during more than three hours of interrogation.
“We have a nuclear doctrine, look what it says. If someone’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all the means at our disposal. This should not be taken lightly, superficially.”
Nuclear doctrine published by Russia in 2020 sets out the conditions under which a Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, or to the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the State is threatened”.
Putin rejected Western claims that Russia used nuclear weapons and highlighted that the United States was the only country to use nuclear weapons in war – attacking the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
MISSILES
Putin warned that Western decisions to allow Ukraine to use increasingly powerful Western missiles to attack Russian territory constituted a serious escalation, and said such weapons would have to be guided by Western systems and personnel.
President Joe Biden has authorized Kiev to launch US-supplied weapons against military targets inside Russia, but Washington still prohibits Kiev from attacking Russia with ATACMS, which have a range of up to 186 miles (300 km), and other long-range weapons supplied by the USA. weapons.
Asked about Western decisions, Putin differentiated between the different weapons, but said the use of ATACMS or British Storm Shadow missiles against Russia could lead to a tougher response from Moscow.
“We will improve our air defense systems and destroy them,” Putin said.
“Secondly, we think that if someone thinks it is possible to send such weapons to a war zone to attack our territory and create problems for us, then why don’t we have the right to send our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where attacks can be carried out on sensitive installations of countries that do so against Russia. In other words, the response can be asymmetric.”
“If we see that these countries are being drawn into a war against the Russian Federation, then we reserve the right to act in the same way. In general, this is a path to very serious problems.”
Putin calls the war part of an existential battle with a declining and declining West that he says humiliated Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 by encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine.
Putin said the West refused to talk about the causes of the war – which he said began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was overthrown in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution. Putin called it a US-backed coup.
The West rejects Putin’s analysis of the conflict and calls the invasion an imperial-style land grab and has vowed to help Ukraine defeat Russian forces.
Ukraine says it will not rest until all Russian soldiers are expelled from the areas of Ukraine they control – and which Russia now considers to be parts of Russia.
More than two years after Europe’s deadliest land war since World War II, Russia’s leader is increasingly talking about the risk of a global war, while the West grapples with what to do about the advance of Russian troops into Ukraine. .
Western leaders and Ukraine have played down Russia’s warnings about the risk of a wider war involving Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, but have repeatedly warned that Putin could attack a member of NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance led by by the United States.
Both Putin and Biden have said that a direct conflict between Russia and NATO would be a step towards World War III.
“You shouldn’t make Russia the enemy. You’re only hurting yourself by doing this, you know?” Putin said.
“They thought Russia wanted to attack NATO. Are you completely crazy? This is as thick as this table. Who invented this? It’s complete nonsense, you know? Total rubbish.”
(Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
