Putin Warns the West: Russia Is Ready for Nuclear War 

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with winners of the Leaders of Russia national management competition at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 12 March 2024. (EPA/Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with winners of the Leaders of Russia national management competition at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 12 March 2024. (EPA/Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
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Putin Warns the West: Russia Is Ready for Nuclear War 

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with winners of the Leaders of Russia national management competition at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 12 March 2024. (EPA/Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with winners of the Leaders of Russia national management competition at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 12 March 2024. (EPA/Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool)

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the US 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 US 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.

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.

Western leaders have promised to defeat Russia in Ukraine, but after two years of war, Russian forces control a little under one fifth of Ukrainian territory.

In a US election year, the West is grappling with how to support Kyiv against Russia which has bolstered its army with hundreds of thousands of men and is rearming much faster than the West.

Kyiv says it is defending itself against an imperial-style war of conquest designed to erase its national identity. Russia says the areas it controls in Ukraine are now Russia.

Nuclear war?

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.

Putin said Russia was ready for serious talks on Ukraine.

"Russia is ready for negotiations on Ukraine, but they should be based on reality - and not on cravings after the use of psychotropic drugs," Putin said.

Reuters reported last month that Putin's suggestion of a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the United States after contacts between intermediaries.

If the United States conducted nuclear tests, Russia might do the same, he added in the wide-ranging interview.

"It's not necessary ... we still need to think about it, but I don't rule out that we can do the same."

CNN reported on Saturday that the administration of US President Joe Biden was specifically concerned in 2022 that Russia might use a tactical or battlefield nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

CNN said US intelligence agencies received information there were communications among Russian officials explicitly discussing a nuclear strike in 2022.

However, Putin said Russia had never faced a need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, where the conflict has raged since February 2022.

"Why do we need to use weapons of mass destruction? There has never been such a need."



Canada PM Carney Condemns Israeli Blockade on Food, Says WFP Must Be Allowed to Work in Gaza

Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
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Canada PM Carney Condemns Israeli Blockade on Food, Says WFP Must Be Allowed to Work in Gaza

Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Liberal Party of Canada Leader Mark Carney delivers his speech after being announced as the winner of the party leadership at the announcement event in Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney urged Israel to allow the World Food Program to work in Gaza, saying food must not be used as a 'political tool', hours after the UN agency ran out of stocks due to a sustained Israeli blockade on supplies.
The WFP said on Friday it had delivered its last remaining supplies to kitchens providing hot meals in Gaza and that the facilities were expected to run out of food in the coming days, Reuters reported.
"The UN World Food Program just announced that its food stocks in Gaza have run out because of the Israeli Government's blockade — food cannot be used as a political tool," Carney said on X.
The UN agency said no humanitarian or commercial supplies had entered Gaza for more than seven weeks because all main border crossing points were closed, the longest closure the Gaza Strip had ever faced.
"Palestinian civilians must not bear the consequences of Hamas' terrorist crimes," Carney said. "The World Food Program must be allowed to resume its lifesaving work."
Israel has previously denied that Gaza is facing a hunger crisis. The military accuses the Hamas militants who run Gaza of exploiting aid, which Hamas denies, and says it must keep all supplies out to prevent the fighters from getting it.
The Gaza government media office on Friday said that famine was becoming a reality in the enclave of 2.3 million people.
Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone.
An attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023 killed 1,200 people, and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza. Since then, more than 51,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.
"We will continue to work with our allies towards a permanent ceasefire and the immediate return of all hostages," Carney added.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow food and medicine into the Gaza Strip.
Canadians will vote to elect a new government on Monday, and polls show Carney's Liberals have a slim lead over the Conservatives.