(Daily Mail) Vladimir Putin has threatened that the war in Ukraine could turn into a nuclear conflict, warning ‘there will be no winners, including America’ in a Third World War.
The despot’s threat to escalate his invasion comes as Russian forces continued their endless assault on Ukraine by firing cruise missiles at the southern city of Odesa overnight.
The attack, launched from the Black Sea, killed at least three people and injured more than a dozen others in a strike that damaged homes, a warehouse, shops and cafes, the regional state administration said.
Amid Russia‘s response to Ukraine launching their much-anticipated counteroffensive, Putin, speaking at a meeting with Russian war correspondents in Moscow yesterday, said: ‘The United States pretends not to be afraid of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, but sane people there clearly do not want to take this to a Third World War.
‘In the event of a Third World War, there will be no winners, including America.’
Vladimir Putin (pictured yesterday) has threatened that the war in Ukraine could turn into a nuclear conflict, warning ‘there will be no winners, including America’ in a Third World War
Putin’s comments came as Russian forces continued their assault on Ukraine by firing cruise missiles at the southern city of Odesa overnight (pictured)
His comments come as Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko revealed that his country had started to receive tactical nuclear weapons from its ally Russia.
Lukashenko told Russian state TV that his country was receiving weapons – some of which he said were three times more powerful than US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus is Moscow’s first move of such warheads – shorter-range less powerful nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield – outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Putin said on Friday that Russia, which will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, would start deploying them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready.
The United States has criticised Putin’s decision but has said it has no intention of altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons and has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use one.
The Russian step is nonetheless being watched closely by the United States and its allies as well as by China, which has repeatedly cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.
Revealing that Belarus had taken the delivery of weapons, Lukashenko told Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel: ‘We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko (left with Putin last week) revealed that his country has started to receive tactical nuclear weapons from its ally Russia
