Vladimir Putin says Russia doesn’t need nuclear weapons to win in Ukraine
- Moscow has warned of escalation in the conflict after Western nations relaxed some restrictions on Kyiv’s use of Western arms to strike inside Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday there was no need to use nuclear weapons to deliver victory for Moscow in Ukraine, the strongest signal yet from the Kremlin chief that there will not be a nuclear strike.
Putin, whose forces have been making advances in eastern Ukraine in recent months, said he did not see the conditions for the use of such weapons and requested that people stop discussing the nuclear topic.
However Putin, who leads the world’s biggest nuclear power, said he did not rule out changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which such weapons could be used.
He also said that if necessary Russia could test a nuclear weapon, though he saw no need to do so at the present time.
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Putin’s response came to a question from Sergei Karaganov, an influential Russian analyst, who asked if Putin should hold a “nuclear pistol to the temple” of the West over Ukraine.