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Published on February 29, 2024
Updated February 29, 2024, 6:44 a.m. ET
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened the West with his country's nuclear arsenal “capable of hitting targets on its territory” if it continues to support Ukraine.
During his annual address to parliament and other senior officials on Thursday, Putin, 71, repeatedly accused the West of focusing on weakening the Eastern European country in issuing the ominous warning.
“(Western nations) need to realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” Putin said. “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Do not you understand?!”
Putin, who is close to being re-elected to another six-year term in the upcoming March 15-17 presidential election, boasted of Russia's vast arsenal of advanced nuclear weapons, the largest in the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West about Russia's nuclear capabilities in his address to the nation on Thursday. AP
The surprise warning came after Putin referred to an idea by French President Emmanuel Macron that European NATO members could send ground troops to Ukraine, which was rejected by the United States, Britain and Germany, among others.
“Strategic nuclear forces are in full operation,” Putin said, noting that new-generation hypersonic nuclear weapons, which he first spoke of in 2018, were either deployed or were at a stage where development and testing had been completed.
The Russian leader's address came a day after the European Commission president proposed freezing Russian assets to help finance Ukraine.
Visibly upset, Putin urged Western politicians to remember the fate of people like Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and Napoleon Bonaparte in France, who had unsuccessfully invaded Russia in the past.
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” Putin said. “They think it (war) is a cartoon,” he said.
With post wires.
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