Russian authorities downplay Putin’s nuclear threat

• Russian President Vladimir Putin made a nuke threat against Ukraine.
• Moscow was not threatening to use nuclear weapons.
• It did not desire to engage in conflict with NATO.

Russian officials downplayed the warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a nuke threat against Ukraine and its Western allies.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, stated on Friday that Moscow was not threatening to use nuclear weapons and that Moscow had no desire to engage in conflict with NATO or the United States.

Ryabkov assured reporters that “We are not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons.” “Russia’s military policy lays forth the requirements for their usage.”

As he announced a partial mobilization to intensify the military conflict in Ukraine, Putin stated in a televised address earlier this week that he was “not kidding” about using nuclear weapons if Russian territories were endangered.

Ryabkov, however, asserted that Russia did not desire a “open conflict” with the US or NATO, nor did it want the situation to get worse.

Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the US, expressed his desire to think that “despite all problems, Moscow and Washington are not on the edge of a collapse into the abyss of a nuclear conflict” on Friday as well, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

Additionally, two retired Russian generals told Al Jazeera that they didn’t think there was much chance of a nuclear exchange.

Putin declared Russia’s first mobilization since the Second World War on Wednesday and informed the public that his country was at war with Ukraine and the military forces of the Western nations that support Kiev.

Putin stated during the speech that he is in favor of the four ongoing annexation referendums in Ukraine.

Ex-President Dmitry Medvedev and other Russian officials have stated that once the regions are merged into Russia, any strikes by Ukraine there will be seen as direct aggression against Russia.

This would imply that, in accordance with its nuclear doctrine, Russia could authorize the use of nuclear weapons if it believes a “existential danger” exists.

While everything was going on, non-aligned states joined the US and its allies in denouncing the invasion of Ukraine in comments made at the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, claimed that Ukraine had turned into “an anti-Russian staging ground to fabricate threats against Russian security” while he was present at the UN meeting.

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