In an interview, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia would only use nuclear weapons if its very existence was threatened.

Peskov’s remark came as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour pressed him on whether he was “convinced or confident” that President Vladimir Putin would not use the nuclear option in the context of Ukraine.

“We have a concept of domestic security, and it’s public. You can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used,” Peskov said on Tuesday.

“So if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept.”

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President Putin has raised the threat of using nuclear weapons – and his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out their use, in an interview with me tonight. pic.twitter.com/uxQqncLGYN

— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) March 22, 2022

Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be placed on high alert last month.

According to the Interfax news agency, Russia’s defence ministry announced on February 28 that its nuclear missile forces, as well as its northern and Pacific fleets, had been placed on enhanced combat duty in accordance with the order.

On March 14, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that “the prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, has now returned to the realm of possibility.”

According to Peskov, Russia’s war in Ukraine is “going on strictly in accordance with the plans and the purposes that were established beforehand.”

The remarks come after US Vice President Joe Biden warned that Putin was considering using chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine, calling Moscow’s tactics “brutal.”

Russia announced last week that it had launched its Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missile, which can reach targets anywhere on Earth in an hour.

Putin stated in December that Russia was the global leader in hypersonic missiles, which are difficult to track and intercept due to their speed, manoeuvrability, and altitude.

The Kinzhal missiles are part of a slew of weapons that were unveiled in 2018. In 2016, Russia used the hypersonic missile for the first time during its military campaign in Syria.

The war has shook the post-Cold War global security consensus, jeopardised the global supply of key crops, and raised fears of a nuclear accident.

Separately, wildfires erupted near Ukraine’s decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but the country’s natural resources minister said the flames had been extinguished and radiation levels had returned to normal. Chernobyl was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.