West wanted Russia ‘to make mistakes’ and nuke Ukraine – Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Kiev’s Western backers of attempting to provoke Moscow into using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. He stressed that this drastic measure has not been necessary and expressed hope that it never will be.
In an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin aired on Sunday, Putin claimed that the West “wanted to provoke us, wanted to force us to make mistakes.”
“There has been no need to use [nuclear] weapons” in the Ukraine conflict, the Russian president said, adding: “I hope it won’t be necessary.”
Putin stated that Russia has “enough forces and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion” with a favorable outcome.
Last month, Sergey Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s National Security Council, told TASS that nuclear weapons could be used “in the event of aggression” against Russia or Belarus, conventional or otherwise.
Shoigu, who previously served as defense minister, made the remarks amid ongoing discussions among European NATO member states on the potential deployment of troops to Ukraine after Kiev and Moscow reach a ceasefire agreement.
He reiterated that the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine could lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO, potentially escalating into a nuclear war.
In his comments, Shoigu cited amendments to Russia’s nuclear doctrine which were authorized by Putin last November.
Under the updated doctrine, Moscow reserves the right to deploy its nuclear deterrent to prevent aggression by hostile powers and military blocs that possess weapons of mass destruction or large arsenals of conventional weapons. One potential scenario mentioned in the document that could trigger a response is confirmed intelligence about a massive incoming attack involving aircraft, missiles, and drones.
Russia would also consider all members of a bloc to be potential targets if one member state attacked the country. This would also apply to other nations providing their sovereign space to third parties to launch a strike.
In December 2024, Putin suggested that a “sufficient number” of Russia’s state-of-the-art Oreshnik hypersonic missiles would “simply put us on the brink of virtually no need to use nuclear weapons.”
