[D66] Putin says no one can win a nuclear war

[René Oudeweg]

nbcnews.com
<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-says-can-no-winners-nuclear-war-never-unleashed-rcna40964>



  Putin says no one can win a nuclear war

By Reuters
3 minutes
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    Putin says 'there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should
    never be unleashed'

International concern about the risk of a nuclear confrontation has
heightened since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting via a video
conference at the Kremlin in Moscow on August 1, 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting via a video conference
at the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday. Pavel Byrkin / Sputnik/AFP via Getty
Images

Aug. 1, 2022, 3:35 PM UTC

/ Source: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday there could be no winners
in a nuclear war and no such war should ever be started.

Putin made the comment in a letter to participants of a conference on
the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT), more than five months into
his war on Ukraine.

“We proceed from the fact that there can be no winners in a nuclear war
and it should never be unleashed, and we stand for equal and indivisible
security for all members of the world community,” he said.

International concern about the risk of a nuclear confrontation has
heightened since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24
<https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia-ukraine-news>. In a speech at the
time, Putin pointedly referred to Russia’s nuclear arsenal and warned
outside powers against any attempt to interfere.

“Whoever tries to hinder us ... should know that Russia’s response will
be immediate. And it will lead you to such consequences that you have
never encountered in your history,” he said.

Days later, he ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be put on high alert.

The war in Ukraine has raised geopolitical tensions to levels not seen
since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in March: “The
prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the
realm of possibility.”

Politicians in both Russia and the United States have spoken publicly of
the risk of World War Three. CIA director William Burns said in April
that given the setbacks Russia had suffered in Ukraine, “none of us can
take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear
weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”

Russia, whose military doctrine allows for the use of nuclear weapons in
the event of an existential threat to the Russian state, has accused the
West of waging a “proxy war” against it by arming Ukraine and imposing
sanctions on Moscow.
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