Putin threatens nuclear war if the West sends troops to Ukraine I DW News

Putin threatens nuclear war if the West sends troops to Ukraine I DW News

Vladimir Putin has warned NATO countries they risk nuclear war if they send troops to Ukraine the Russian leader has been delivering his annual state of the nation address two weeks ahead of a presidential election that he is expected to win little to no opposition stands in his way Putin told Russians in

His speech that he would be stationing more soldiers in Russia’s West close to New NATO members Finland and Sweden now Putin’s nuclear warning come after France’s president refused to rule out the possibility of Western Nations sending troops to Ukraine This was later rejected by the US and Germany here’s some of what Putin

Said they should have eventually understand that we also have weapons and they know it I just said it now myself weapons that can hit Targets on their territory everything that the West is coming up with now what they threaten the world with it can result in a conflict with the use of

Nuclear weapons and therefore the destruction of civilization Aria bureau chief Yuri retto has been following Putin’s speech now DW has been reporting from lvia since it was forced to close its office in Russia two years ago welcome Yuri um what’s your reaction to what we just

Heard from Putin what what message is he sending to Europe Europe and the West well Anya what we’ve just heard from the Russian president was a clear threat to the West addressed to the NATO countries that allegedly want to destroy Russia Putin responded to the you said

It to the words of the Russian of fren French president who didn’t rule out the idea of NATO soldiers in Ukraine which was rejected by the US and Germany but Putin threatened that the consequences of such a move could be tragic for those who would send soldiers to Ukraine he

Also commented on the rumors that Russia allegedly wanted to station nuclear weapons in space which he called fake news and accused the Americans of spreading them giving the US election campaign as the reason now given uh Russia’s recent military gains in Ukraine did he say anything more um about the

War well Putin has once again given a kind of Y history lesson with his view of the war according to Putin Russia is defending itself from NATO uh we’ve heard that several times it’s not nothing new Putin thanked the people in Russia for supporting his War policy in

Ukraine and once again very sharply attacked the Western countries that allegedly want Russia to fall Russia he said would continue to follow its War aims uh in this context Putin also talked about the arms industry in Russia which is running at full speed uh this means that an end to the war is

Obviously not to be expected anytime soon now president elections are just two weeks away now in Russia Putin is the only viable candidate what did he have to say to Russians about this upcoming vote well yes this was Putin’s 19th speech to the nation and it was a

Political speech just as one would expect shortly before the election from a politician the only difference being that there is no real democratic election to be expected in Russia so Putin focused on many internal successes he praised among other things the stability of the Russian economy which hasn’t collapsed under Western sanctions

It should be said that most Russians don’t actually live in poverty but the sanctions are going to have a long-term impact whether in the aviation industry where parts of Western aircraft are running out or in medicine where shortages are allegedly emerging uh food prices have also increased that also

Putin haven’t mentioned uh but Putin has promised many social guarantees and that was clearly standard election campaign rhetoric okay so um we know that Putin will remain president is it popular is it possible to to gauge how popular he really still is with the Russian people well look according to the

Independent Lada Center which is pretty reliable uh and by the way classified as a foreign agent in Russia uh so according to levada Putin’s personal popularity is 65% 80% of Russians are generally satisfied with Putin’s policies which certainly includes the war in Ukraine there are VAR various reasons for this

Popularity I think the most important reason is that Russians see no alternative the political field in Russia has been cleared after 24 years of Putin in power and many older people in Russia still thank him for a certain stability after the chaotic 90s and of course we mustn’t underestimate the

Power of propaganda which does everything it can to make Russians believe that Russia would have been attacked by NATO and must therefore now defend itself what these people don’t consider that Russia is now completely isolated at least in Europe and the NATO is right on Putin’s doorstep so to speak

After the entering of Sweden and Finland that’s what Putin wanted to avoid but that’s exactly what he got Yuri thank you so much for that analysis that’s DW’s Ria bu bureau chief Yuri retto now as we just heard there Putin’s veiled nuclear threat came after president Emanuel Macon of France a NATO

Member suggested it might eventually be necessary for allies to consider deploying ground troops to Ukraine now that idea was quickly shot down by other Western leaders including the German Chancellor Olaf Schultz in a new video message Schultz again seeks to allay and uh concerns among German voters of any

Direct involvement in the war the NAT is NATO is not and will not be party to the war that remains the case we do not want Russia’s war against Ukraine to become a war between Russia and NATO we agree on this with all our allies this also means

No German participation in the war to put it bluntly as German Chancellor I will not be sending any members of the German Armed Forces to Ukraine our soldiers can count on that and you too can count on that Hans Brandt is DW’s political correspondent Hans explain to us why the

German Chancellor um is emphasizing so vehemently and repeatedly that German soldiers will not be deployed in Ukraine well just think about the prospect of German soldiers on the Eastern Front fighting Russian troops it’s a memory from the second world war which ended in disaster for Germany and

For the of Europe it’s something that sends shivers down many many backs here in Germany so what the chancellor really was trying to do is to re reassure his voters to reassure the German population that this traumatic Prospect uh is not going to uh be realized under his

Chancellorship um he was in fact speaking to the German public more than uh to his allies uh more than to France’s president Emanuel maon at the same time one has to see that Chancellor Schultz is very clear about uh Germany operating in the conflict in Ukraine within the context of alliances

Within the context of the NATO alliance and there Germany will continue to um play its part to give a lot of money to Ukraine and also to deploy troops and frankly to NATO countries such as Lithuania so it’s an address to the German public it’s an attempt to set red

Line at the same time it’s not really a withdrawal from the NATO alliance from German side DW political correspondent Hans brand thank you so much

Vladimir Putin has warned NATO countries they risk nuclear war if they send troops to Ukraine. The Russian leader has been delivering his annual state of the nation address two weeks ahead a presidential election that he’s expected to win. Little-to-no opposition stands in his way. Putin told Russians in his speech that he’d be stationing more soldiers in Russia’s West, close to new NATO members Finland and Sweden.

Putin’s nuclear warning came after France’s president refused to rule out the possibility of Western nations sending troops to Ukraine. This was later rejected by the US and Germany.

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