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Vladimir Putin has said Russia is prepared for a nuclear war, delivering a crude warning to the west as his army advances on the Ukrainian battlefield more than two years into its full-scale invasion.
The Russian president boasted that his nuclear forces were on “constant alert”, claimed that Russia had surpassed the US in developing a new generation of nuclear-capable weapons and said testing could resume in a state television interview broadcast on Wednesday.
“From the military-technical point of view we are, of course, prepared,” Putin said. “[The US is] developing their components. So are we. That doesn’t mean, in my view, that they are prepared to start this nuclear war tomorrow. If they are — what can we do? We’re prepared.”
Putin, who is expected to cruise to victory in elections this weekend that will extend his 24-year rule until at least 2030, resumed his blunt threats about Moscow’s readiness to use nuclear weapons and expressed confidence that Russia was winning the war in Ukraine.
Though Putin said there had “never been the need” to use a tactical nuclear weapon, he added that he could do so if there was a threat to the “existence of the Russian state” or “damage to our sovereignty and independence”, as outlined in Russia’s nuclear doctrine.
“Weapons are there to be used,” Putin said.
The comments underscore how Russia’s military has trained to potentially use tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield at remarkably low thresholds in the early stages of a conflict, including against major world powers, according to leaked classified files seen by the Financial Times.
Putin also claimed that he had not considered using a tactical nuclear weapon at Russia’s lowest point in Ukraine in the autumn of 2022, when his forces made humiliating retreats in the eastern regions of Kharkiv and Kherson.
Then, the US, UK, and France were sufficiently worried Putin could do so that they delivered a joint message to Russia vowing to retaliate to a tactical nuclear strike in Ukraine with conventional weapons.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has given Russia an economic lifeline against western sanctions and offered his tacit backing for the invasion, also warned Putin against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine during a visit to Moscow last year.
In the wake of the warnings, Putin abandoned his rhetoric and did not mention tactical nuclear weapons publicly for several months. According to people close to the Kremlin, he had projected scenarios resulting from the use of tactical nuclear weapons and independently decided they would not give Russia an advantage.
Instead, Russia halted its participation in the New Start treaty and deratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban treaty, moves experts say are aimed at using Russia’s nuclear arsenal for political pressure without explicitly threatening to use it.
Putin said Russia could resume nuclear testing in response to a test by the US. “I’d have to think some more, but I can’t rule out that we would do the same,” he said. “We are always ready. These aren’t regular arms, these are forces that are on constant alert.”
Since then, Russia has recaptured the initiative against Ukraine’s outmanned and outgunned army while a crucial US aid package to Kyiv is stalled in Congress.
Russia’s army took the ruined city of Avdiivka in February, its first significant victory since the destruction and capture of nearby Bakhmut, also in eastern Donetsk province, in May 2023.
Ukraine “didn’t achieve a single one of the goals they set last year. And now the initiative has completely turned over to our armed forces,” Putin said.
Putin indicated he was not prepared to discuss surrendering any of the territory annexed from Ukraine and appeared confident Russia’s army could advance further. “We’re only ready for negotiations based on the realities that have come to pass on the ground, not on some [Kyiv] wishlist,” he said.
“Holding negotiations now only because they are running out of ammunition is absurd for us.”
Putin also suggested that a more direct western military intervention could lead to “more significant geopolitical consequences” and force Ukraine to lose more of its territory, or possibly force him to use nuclear weapons, even as he claimed it would “not change anything on the battlefield”.
The US, Germany and other European countries have ruled out sending troops to Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron floated the idea in February.
“I don’t think everyone is foaming at the mouth” to send troops, Putin said. “But we are prepared. I’ve said many times that it’s a matter of life and death for us, and for them it’s an issue of improving their tactical position.”
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