Putin says West is wrong to assume Russia will never use nuclear weapons

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 at range strike by the United States and its allies.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has triggered the worst breakdown in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis – and the Kremlin has repeatedly warned that the The risk of world war increased.

Putin, speaking face to face to editors of international news agencies for the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, dismissed Western claims that Russia could attack NATO as “stupid”, citing the alliance's military strength.

But asked about the risk of nuclear war, the 71-year-old Kremlin leader said Russia's nuclear doctrine allowed the use of such weapons if the country's territorial integrity or sovereignty was threatened.

“For some reason the West believes that Russia will never use it,” Putin said when Reuters asked him about the risk of nuclear escalation in Ukraine during more than three hours of questioning.

“We have a nuclear doctrine, look what it says. If someone's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible for us to use all means at our disposal. This should not not to be taken lightly, superficially.”

Russian nuclear doctrine published in 2020 defines the conditions under which a Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly in response to an attack using nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, or to the use of nuclear weapons conventional attacks against Russia “when the very existence of the state is threatened. »

Putin rejected Western claims that Russia resorted to nuclear sabre-rattling and pointed out that the United States was the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war – attacking the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 .

MISSILES

Putin warned that Western decisions allowing Ukraine to use ever more powerful Western missiles to strike Russian territory amounted to a serious escalation, and said such weapons should be guided by Western systems and personnel.

President Joe Biden has authorized kyiv to launch US-supplied weapons at military targets in Russia, but Washington still prohibits Kiev from striking Russia with ATACMS, which have a range of up to 300 km, and other long-range weapons supplied by the United States. weapons.

Asked about Western decisions, Putin distinguished 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 that it is possible to send such weapons into a war zone to hit our territory and create problems for us, then why don't we have the right to send our weapons of the same class in those regions of a world where strikes can be carried out on sensitive installations of countries that do so against Russia, that is, the response can be asymmetric.

“If we find that these countries are drawn into a war against the Russian Federation, we reserve the right to act in the same way. In general, this leads to very serious problems.”

Putin presents the war as part of an existential battle with a declining and decadent West that he says humiliated Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 by encroaching on what he sees as the sphere of influence from Moscow, including Ukraine.

Putin said the West refused to talk about the causes of the war – which he said began in 2014 after the overthrow of a pro-Russian president in Ukraine's Maidan revolution. Putin presented this as a US-backed coup.

The West rejects Putin's analysis of the conflict as an imperial-style land grab and has pledged to help Ukraine defeat Russian forces.

Ukraine says it will not rest until the last Russian soldier is expelled from areas of Ukraine that it controls – and which Russia now considers part of Russia.

More than two years after the start of Europe's deadliest land war since World War II, Russia's leader is increasingly talking about the risk of a world war as the West grapples with what to do about it. advance of Russian troops in Ukraine.

Western and Ukrainian leaders have downplayed Russia's warnings about the risk of a broader war involving Russia, the world's largest nuclear power, but have repeatedly warned that Putin could attack a NATO member, the world's most powerful military alliance led by the United States.

Putin and Biden have said that direct conflict between Russia and NATO would be a step toward World War III.

“You shouldn't make Russia an enemy. You're only hurting yourself with that, you know?” Putin said.

“They thought Russia wanted to attack NATO. Have you gone completely crazy? It's as thick as this table. Who invented that? It's just absurd, you know? Total rubbish.”

(Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Andrew Osborn)