London: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that there can be no winner in a nuclear war and that no such war should ever be started. The Kremlin leader made the remarks in a letter to participants of a conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), more than five months into its war on Ukraine.
“We proceed from the fact that there can be no winner in nuclear war and it should never be uncovered, and we stand for equal and indivisible security for all members of the world community,” he said.
His words to the NPT Forum appeared to strike a reassuring note and aimed to portray Russia as a responsible nuclear power.
He contrasted earlier statements by Putin and other Russian politicians, which have been interpreted as inherent nuclear threats to the West.
In a speech on 24 February, as he launched the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin explicitly mentioned Russia’s nuclear arsenal and warned outside powers that any attempt to intervene “will lead you to such consequences.” Which you have never faced in your history”.
A few days later, he ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be put on high alert.
The war has escalated geopolitical tensions to levels not seen since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, with politicians in both Russia and the United States publicly talking about the risk of a Third World War.
CIA Director William Burns said in April that given the setbacks Russia had suffered in Ukraine, “none of us take lightly the threat posed by strategic nuclear weapons or the potential recourse to low-yield nuclear weapons.” could.”
Russia, whose military doctrine allows the use of nuclear weapons in the event of a potential threat to the Russian state, has accused the West of waging a “prosthetic war” against Ukraine by arming it and imposing sanctions on Moscow.
Earlier on Monday, a Russian foreign ministry source questioned the seriousness of US President Joe Biden’s comments on negotiating a nuclear arms control framework to replace the treaty that expires in 2026.
In April, Russia launched the first test of its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of carrying out nuclear strikes against the United States, and said it planned to deploy the weapons by the autumn.