Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western countries against sending troops to Ukraine.
The consequences of such a decision would be "tragic", he said.
In his annual state of the nation address, President Putin accused the West of trying to drag Russia into an arms race.
At the same time, he said that Russia needed to strengthen its defences on its western border now that Sweden and Finland were joining Nato.
President Putin said the West "provoked" the conflict in Ukraine and "continues to lie, without any embarrassment, saying that Russia allegedly intends to attack Europe".
Probably referring to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week that sending Nato ground troops to Ukraine "could not be excluded", President Putin said: "The consequences for possible interventionists will be... tragic."
"We also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory," he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that he spoke about sending Western troops to Ukraine quite deliberately, claiming that he "weighed" his words and "thought them through." talking to reported during
"These are rather serious topics. My every word on this issue is weighted, thought through and calculated," he told reporters during the visit to the upcoming Olympic village on the outskirts of Paris.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western countries on Feb 29 that there was a genuine risk of nuclear war if they sent their own troops to fight in Ukraine, and he said Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West.
ReplyDeleteAddressing Parliament and other members of the country's elite, Putin said the West is bent on weakening Russia, Reuters reported.
He suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling in Russia's internal affairs could be.
Russia's strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteRussian strategic nuclear forces are purely defensive by nature, aimed at deterring possible full-scale attacks on the nation that might threaten its existence. Russia vows to never use nuclear arms for any other reasons, apart from specified in its strategic documents often called its "nuclear doctrine."