![Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual address to the Federal Assembly, in Moscow [Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters]](https://faxxnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Russian-President-Vladimir-Putin-delivers-his-annual-address.jpg)
Two weeks ahead of the presidential election, the Russian leader says his troops won’t back down in Ukraine.
Aljazeera – Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of a “real” risk of nuclear war if the Western countries sent troops to fight in Ukraine during an annual address to the nation two weeks ahead of the presidential election.
“There has been talk about the possibility of sending NATO military contingents to Ukraine. But we remember the fate of those who once sent their contingents to our country’s territory. But now the consequences for possible interventionists will be far more tragic,” Putin said addressing parliament and other senior elites.
“They must realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don’t they get that?”
Putin has previously spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear weapon warning on Thursday was one of his most explicit.
Putin’s warning comes in the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal on Monday of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and some other members rejected the suggestion.
But Putin suggested that Western leaders remember the fate of those like Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte, who unsuccessfully tried to invade his country in the past.
The Russian leader previously pulled Moscow out of the START arms control treaty with the US last year and previously said he was “not bluffing” when he stated he was ready to use nuclear weapons.
Putin also said Russia was “ready” for dialogue with the US on “strategic stability” issues despite the invasion of Ukraine triggering the worst relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
