USA: There are no signs that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons

2024-02-29 21:37:30, Kosova & Bota CNA

The United States has seen no signs that Russia is preparing to use any nuclear weapons and will continue to watch it carefully, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said late Thursday.

Miller made the comments after earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow has weapons to strike targets in the West.

"This is not the first time we hear irresponsible rhetoric from Vladimir Putin. This is not the way the leader of a nuclear-armed state should speak," Miller said.

Speaking Thursday morning during an address to the nation in Moscow, Putin said Western countries risked provoking a nuclear war if they send troops to fight in Ukraine.

"We also have weapons with which they can hit targets on their territory," Putin said. "Don't they understand that?"

The West must "definitely, in the end, understand that all this risks inciting a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and ultimately the destruction of civilization," he said.

"We remember the fate of those who once sent their contingents to the territory of our country. But the consequences of possible interventions will be much more tragic now", he added.

Earlier this week, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, after a summit of European leaders in Paris, said that despite the fact that there is no consensus for now, no possibility to help Ukraine should be ruled out, including sending of Western troops to fight alongside Kiev in order to prevent a Russian victory.

The United States and key European allies said this week that they have no plans to send ground troops to Ukraine.

Putin's speech came ahead of Russian presidential elections scheduled for March 15-17, which the Kremlin hopes to use to show the nation's unity in support of Putin and the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow launched in February 2022.

Russian elections are tightly controlled by the Kremlin and are neither free nor fair, but are seen by the Government as a need to convey a sense of legitimacy./ REL