Vladimir Putin has warned that a direct conflict between Russia and US-led NATO will bring the world dangerously close to World War 3.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said that a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War 3. He, however, said that no one wanted such a scenario.
Putin on Sunday won another term in the office after garnering 87.8% of the votes in the national election, the highest-ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
After winning the biggest ever landslide in Russian history, Putin said: “It is clear to everyone, that this will be one step away from a full-scale World War Three. I think hardly anyone is interested in this.”
Putin said the NATO military personnel were present already in Ukraine, saying that Russia had picked up both English and French being spoken on the battlefield. “There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they are dying there and in large numbers,” he said.
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron said he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future. When asked about Macron’s remarks and the risks and possibility of a conflict between Russia and NATO, Putin quipped: “everything is possible in the modern world.”
The Ukraine war has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war but says he has never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the Russian President said Moscow was ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty or independence was threatened. Putin has repeatedly talked about his readiness to use nuclear weapons since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The most recent such threat came in his state-of-the-nation address last month, when he warned the West that deepening its involvement in the fighting in Ukraine would risk a nuclear war.
