Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet is one step away from World War 3. However, he said no one wants such a scenario.
Putin won another term in office on Sunday after winning 87.8% of the vote in national elections, the highest ever in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
After winning the largest landslide in Russian history to date, Putin said: “It’s clear to everyone that this will be a step away from a full-on World War III. I think few people care.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that he could not rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine in the future. When asked about Macron’s remarks and the risks and possibility of conflict between Russia and NATO, Putin quipped: “in the modern world, anything is possible.”
The war in Ukraine caused the most serious crisis in the relations between Russia and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Although President Putin has repeatedly warned of the dangers of nuclear war, he has said he has never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
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Earlier this month, Russia’s president said Moscow was ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty or independence were threatened. President Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to use nuclear weapons since launching a massive invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The latest 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 nuclear war.
