INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S
sent troops to Ukraine it would be considered a significant escalation of the war.Putin, speaking just days before a March 15-17 election
which is certain to give him another six years in power, said the nuclear war scenario was not &rushing& up and he saw no need for the use
of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.&From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,& Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and
news agency RIA in response to a question whether the country was really ready for a nuclear war.Putin said the U.S
understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory & or to Ukraine & Russia would treat the move as an intervention.&(In
the United States) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint,& Putin
said.&Therefore, I don&t think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this.&The war in Ukraine
has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia&s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Putin has warned several times
that the West risks provoking a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine, Reuters reported.Putin sent tens of thousands of troops
into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one
side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.Putin, Russia&s ultimate decision maker on nuclear weapons, reiterated that
the use of nuclear weapons was spelled out in the Kremlin&s nuclear doctrine, its policy setting out the circumstances in which Russia might
use its weapons.&Weapons exist in order to use them,& Putin said
&We have our own principles.&Russia and the United States are by far the largest nuclear powers, controlling more than 90% of the world&s
nuclear weapons.The post Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war first appeared on Ariana News.
