RUSSIA COULD USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS IF EXISTENCE THREATENED: KREMLIN

Wed 23 March 2022:

In an interview, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia would only unleash nuclear weapons if its very existence was threatened.

Peskov made the remark when CNN’s Christiane Amanpour pressed him on whether he was “convinced or confident” that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not unleash the nuclear option in the Ukraine conflict.

“We have a concept of domestic security, and it’s public. You can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used,” Peskov said on Tuesday.

“So if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept.”

President Putin has raised the threat of using nuclear weapons – and his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out their use, in an interview with me tonight. pic.twitter.com/uxQqncLGYN

— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) March 22, 2022

Putin last month ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be put on high alert.

In line with the order, Russia’s defence ministry said on February 28 that its nuclear missile forces and northern and Pacific fleets had been placed on enhanced combat duty, the Interfax news agency reported.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on March 14 that “the prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility”.

Peskov also told CNN that Russia’s war in Ukraine was “going on strictly in accordance with the plans and the purposes that were established beforehand”.

The comments come after United States President Joe Biden warned that Putin was considering using chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine, as he described Moscow’s tactics as increasingly “brutal”.

Last week Russia said it had launched its Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missile that can hit targets anywhere on Earth within an hour.

Putin said in December that Russia was the world leader in hypersonic missiles, which are challenging to track and intercept due to their speed, maneuverability, and altitude.

The Kinzhal missiles are part of a slew of new weapons that were unveiled in 2018. In 2016, Russia used the hypersonic missile for the first time during its military war in Syria.

The battle has shattered the post-Cold War global security consensus, jeopardized world food supplies, and increased fears of a nuclear disaster.

Wildfires erupted near Ukraine’s decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power facility, but the country’s natural resources minister stated the fires were put out and radiation levels were normal. The world’s worst nuclear tragedy occurred in 1986 at Chernobyl.