Russia has said it is not considering using any of its nuclear arsenal “at this stage” as it renews its attack on Ukraine.
In the days after Moscow launched its long anticipated attack on the east of Ukraine, Kremlin foreign minister Sergei Lavrov issued the warning.
Speaking to India Today, when asked whether Russia intended to unleash any of its nuclear weapons. He said: “At this stage, we are considering the option of conventional weapons only”.
Lavrov, a long-time mouthpiece for the Kremlin and Putin, left the threat of potential nuclear war hanging for further down the line.
Across the interview he parroted Kremlin propaganda lines claiming the US, the West and NATO were responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian minister previously claimed in late January that Moscow had no intention to invade Ukraine.
Less than a month later Putin announced the invasion.
Speaking to India Today, he spread Kremlin lies saying: “The current events are rooted in the US and West’s desire to rule the world.
“They pumped arms into Ukraine. They violated their promises to Russian leadership and started moving NATO eastward after the Soviet Union disappeared. They said it’s a defensive alliance and not a threat to Russian security.”
Russia has claimed a number of justifications for its invasion, including blaming NATO, a defensive bloc, and its expansionism, and claiming it was “denazifying” Ukraine, despite the fact its president is Jewish.
Lavrov also attempted to dispute the fact that Russian forces had committed war crimes and claimed Moscow was only targeting military infrastructure.
This is despite the growing amounts of evidence proving otherwise, including how Russia has bombed maternity and children hospitals, repeatedly targeted shelters and humanitarian corridors too.
He claimed Russia was not responsible for the atrocities in Bucha but satellite imagery from commercial provider Maxar Technologies, first reported by The New York Times, proved the bodies had been there for weeks.
Lavrov’s comments on Russia’s nuclear weapons came Putin sent nuclear-capable bombers into the skies over Western Russia this week.
Videos from Monday and Saturday caught four aircrafts which can carry nukes over the Kaluga region, between Moscow and the Ukrainian border.
Threats and fears of involvement of Russia’s nuclear arsenal have punctuated the Kremlin’s so far unsuccessful invasion of Ukraine.
Days after the invasion began on February 24, Putin put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert and threatened NATO with “consequences greater than any you have faced in history” if they intervened.
The Russian foreign minister also confirmed that his country have launched the latest stage of its invasion of Ukraine, what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the “battle of Donbas”.
In the days and weeks leading up to Russia’s second phase of the attack, Ukraine and western intelligence sources warned that Russia was amassing troops and resources.