President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine it would be considered a significant escalation of the war.
Putin, speaking just days before a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, said the nuclear war scenario was not “rushing” up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question whether the country was really ready for a nuclear war.
Putin said the U.S. understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory - or to Ukraine - Russia would treat the move as an intervention.
Not really the same scenario.
China repeatedly warned the US in situations where the US was likely to do something. The US went right ahead and did it anyway, and China didn’t do anything.
Putin is warning the US about if the US sends troops, a scenario that the US has consistently said – as recently as the last few weeks – that it does not intend to do.
White House spokesman John Kirby said France was a ‘sovereign nation’ which, like any other NATO country, could make its own decision on whether to send troops to Ukraine.
But he added: ‘The only U.S. military personnel in Ukraine are associated with the embassy…The president’s been clear. There’s not going to be U.S. troops on the ground.’
That’s probably a pretty safe warning for Putin to issue, because the US is unlikely to do what he’s warning about.
This isn’t the first time they threatened nukes. Lines were crossed, and nothing happened. These threats no longer seem credible.
