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Vladimir Putin yesterday warned a nuclear war could break out if Ukraine joins NATO and accused the West of ‘complete disregard for our concerns’ hours after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Moscow.
The Russian strongman said he wanted to ‘stress one more time’ that ‘if Ukraine joins NATO… the European countries will be automatically pulled into a war conflict with Russia’.
He said states would not ‘even have time to blink’ before invoking Article 5 of NATO which demands collective defense of members.
Putin also said he recognised Moscow’s military might was ‘incomparable’ with NATO but warned Russia ‘is one of the leading nuclear states’ and that there would be ‘no winners’ in a hot war.
His comments came after lengthy negotiations with Macron over the crisis in Ukraine, which Putin described as ‘constructive’ after using the familiar ‘ty’ form of ‘you’ to address the French President, seen as a sign of a good rapport between the leaders.
Putin has spent months massing some 135,000 troops backed by tanks and artillery on Ukraine’s borders, sparking repeated warnings from Washington that he is about to invade.
Vladimir Putin yesterday warned a nuclear war could break out if Ukraine joins NATO and accused the West of ‘complete disregard for our concerns’ in a press conference (pictured) hours after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron
Putin (right, at a joint press conference with Macron yesterday) said he recognised Moscow’s military might was ‘incomparable’ with NATO but warned Russia ‘is one of the leading nuclear states’ and that there would be ‘no winners’ in a hot war
Putin’s comments came after lengthy negotiations with Macron (pictured, on February 7) over the crisis in Ukraine, which were described as ‘constructive’
Putin claimed his Moscow talks with President Emmanuel Macron were constructive but said: ‘I want to stress it one more time,
‘I’ve been saying it, but I’d very much want you to finally hear me, and to deliver it to your audience in print, TV and online.
‘Do you understand it or not, that if Ukraine joins NATO and attempts to bring Crimea back by military means, the European countries will be automatically pulled into a war conflict with Russia?’
Putin warned: ‘Of course the [military] potential of NATO and Russia are incomparable. We understand it.
‘But we also understand that Russia is one of the leading nuclear states, and by some modern components it even outperforms many.
‘There will be no winners. And you will be pulled into this conflict against your will.
‘You won’t even have time to blink your eye when you execute Article 5 (collective defence of NATO members)….
‘Mr President Macron, of course, doesn’t want this. And I don’t want it. And I don’t want it….which is why he is here, torturing me for six straight hours.’
Putin said that for 30 years Russia had tried to persuade the West against a NATO eastward move but there was ‘just a complete disregard for our concerns, demands, and proposals’.
Macron, speaking during a joint press conference in Moscow yesterday, said he had a ‘substantial, deep’ discussion with Putin, with a focus on conditions that could help de-escalation
Moscow has for weeks been massing tens of thousands of troops, tanks and artillery pieces along its eastern flank, sparking fears of an invasion, though the Kremlin has insisted it is merely a defence force (pictured, Russian forces currently massed in border regions)
The threats came after new footage emerged appearing to show Russia’s deployment of ‘unstoppable’ Kinzhal nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles in the country’s westernmost territory Kaliningrad, fewer than 800 miles from Britain.
Other video purports to show one of two MiG-31K deployed in western exclave Kaliningrad wedged between NATO countries Poland and Lithuania with a Baltic Sea coast, within striking distance of Ukraine and less than 800 miles from the UK.
The warplane is reported to be deployed with the new ultra high speed Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles.
The 24-foot-long, one-ton Kinzhal – or Dagger – can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, and Russia boasts it has no match among Western defences.
The hypersonic Kinzhal has a range of 1,250 miles and could pummel Ukrainian troops and defences without flying close to the country.
It appears that the MiG-31Ks capable of carrying the thousand-pound warheads were redeployed from Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, to Chernyakhovsk air base in Kaliningrad region in recent days.
Russia is believed to have around 20 Kinzhal-compatible MiG-31Ks in total.
Ukrainian armed forces from the 14th Separate Mechanised Brigade carry out live fire exercises
US intelligence officials have warned of Russia being ’70 per cent ready’ to invade Ukraine and an intelligence report indicates Russia would be able to overrun Ukraine in just two days
A C-17 transport plane is prepared at Fort Bragg for deployment to Eastern Europe with members of the 82nd Airborne Division amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia
In the Black Sea, Russia’s hi-tech Ivan Khurs intelligence ship was seen just 20 nautical miles from Ukrainian naval port Odessa amid fears that an invasion could include a maritime assault.
Russia has rejected the deployment of UN peacekeepers on the borders of rebel-held Donbas.
Senior diplomat Pyotr Ilyichev, head of the Russian foreign ministry’s international organisations department, said: ‘No, there is no need. Peacekeepers will not resolve anything in the intra-Ukrainian conflict.
‘The Ukrainians need to talk to the LPR and DPR [the people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk].’
Russia has said that upcoming trips to Moscow by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace are unlikely to improve relations.
Russian ambassador to London Andrei Klein said: ‘So far I am not at all under the impression that this could be a step towards a better relationship, and I am basing this on the statements being made by both Liz Truss and Ben Wallace.’
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