The Kremlin is now claiming Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin made “no threats about the use of nuclear weapons” in an interview this week despite him saying that his country is “ready” for a nuclear war.
“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin told state media Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA after he was asked Wednesday about a potential nuclear war.
The Russian president said he knows the U.S. is aware that deploying troops to Ukraine or on Russian territory would be viewed by Moscow as intervening in the war. Putin added that “I don’t think that everything here is rushing to it [nuclear confrontation], but we are ready for this.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that President Biden “certainly is aware” of Putin’s comments and that the Russian leader was reinstating his country’s nuclear doctrine.
PUTIN WARNS THE WEST THAT RUSSIA IS ‘READY’ FOR NUCLEAR WAR: ‘WEAPONS EXIST IN ORDER TO USE THEM’
“This was a question that he was asked. Nevertheless, Russia’s nuclear rhetoric has been reckless and irresponsible throughout this conflict,” Jean-Pierre said. “It is Russia that brutally invaded Ukraine without provocation or justification.”
But when the Kremlin was asked Thursday to respond to the White House’s remarks, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “this was deliberately taking something out of context,” according to Reuters.
“Putin made no threats about the use of nuclear weapons in this interview. The president was just talking about the reasons that could make the use of nuclear weapons inevitable,” Peskov reportedly said.
“These are the reasons that are stated in our relevant documents, which are well known throughout the world. Moreover, everyone in the West deliberately failed to notice his words that it had never occurred to him to use tactical nuclear weapons [in Ukraine], despite the various situations that have developed in the course of the fighting,” Reuters also quoted Peskov as saying. “This is a deliberate distortion of the context and an unwillingness to hear President Putin.”
Putin has warned several times since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago that the West risks a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine.
Fox News’ Landon Mion and Reuters contributed to this report.
