Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Sunday he “hopes” Russia won’t have to nuke Ukraine in a boastful interview on state TV.
The Kremlin tyrant downplayed the need for nuclear weapons against Ukraine but wouldn’t rule them out in response to a question about strikes on Russian territory.
“They wanted to provoke us so that we made mistakes,” Putin said, according to a translation. “There has been no need to use those weapons … and I hope they will not be required.
“We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires.”
Putin made startling comments about Russia’s nuclear stockpile on several occasions throughout Moscow’s bloody war it unleashed on Ukraine in 2022.
Shortly after Russia’s unprovoked invasion, Putin put his military’s nuclear forces on high alert. Putin formally reduced the requirements for the Kremlin to deploy its nuclear weapons last year following Ukrainian attacks on the western Russian city of Kursk.
That cleared the way for Russia to use nukes against any nation that attacks its territory and has the backing of a nuclear power.
Ukrainian ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova denounced Putin in response to his provocative remarks about nuclear weapons and urged countries to take his threat seriously.
“At this point, it doesn’t matter how we interpret what he says,” Markarova told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We just have to believe what he says and understand what he says. He is a threat, not only to Ukraine but also to anyone who believes that nations should live peacefully.”
President Trump has been trying to broker a peace deal between the two warring countries. In February, he ripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a fiery Oval Office encounter, accusing his counterpart of gambling with World War III.
Recently, Trump has begun to sound more glum about the prospects of getting a deal done between the two sides.
“Maybe it’s not possible to do,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday.
“There’s tremendous hatred, just so you understand, Kristen,” he said, referring to reporter Kristen Welker. “We’re talking tremendous hatred between these two men [Putin and Zelensky] and between, you know, some of the soldiers, frankly. Between the generals.”
Russia previously rejected Trump’s pitch for a full cease-fire. Instead, Russia offered a smaller-scale pause in fighting on the energy infrastructure specifically.
But Russia then upped its attacks on Ukrainian civilians, drawing outrage from Trump. Russia has also proposed a temporary cease-fire from May 8 to May 10 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany.
Last week, the Trump administration approved a $50 million weapons package to Ukraine and the two sides inked a new mineral rights agreement.
Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, has been fighting to lock down control of the four territories in Ukraine of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, which it has deemed oblasts.
So far, Moscow lacks complete territorial control over any of them.
Putin called reconciliation with Ukraine “inevitable.”
