Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, March 22, 2022, that Russian President Vladimir Putin may resort to nuclear weapons if Russia is exposed to an "existential danger", without clarifying what is meant by this.
In an interview with CNN, he stated that "the concept of Russia's national security provides for the use of nuclear weapons only in the event of a threat to its existence."
Peskov added that Putin has not yet been able to reach his goals in Ukraine.
The Kremlin spokesman also clarified that the "special military operation" is proceeding according to predetermined plans and goals.
However, he stressed, "From the beginning, no one believed that the special military operation in Ukraine would take two days."
While he stressed that "the occupation of Ukraine is not one of the goals of the Russian special military operation," noting at the same time that their main goal in the city of Mariupol is to "cleanse it of the Ukrainian extremist nationalist units," according to him.
Putin had issued a decision last February to put the "deterrence force" in the Russian army, which includes a nuclear component, on alert, a matter that provoked denounced Western reactions.
Ongoing war
Meanwhile, the Russo-Ukrainian war entered the end of its fourth week; Where it is intensifying day by day, in light of the two sides of the conflict sticking to their positions, amid the increasing number of deaths between the two sides.
At dawn on Thursday, February 24, 2022, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, followed by angry reactions from several countries in the world, which prompted capitals and regional and international organizations to impose various sanctions on Moscow, including multiple sectors, including diplomatic, financial and sports. .
This Russian attack is the largest on a European country since World War II, and heralds a change in the post-Cold War order in Europe.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to install a "puppet" government (subject to Russia), and vowed that Ukrainians would defend their country against "aggression".
Moscow conditions
On the other hand, Moscow says that "the military operation aims to protect its national security" and protect people "who were subjected to genocide" by Kyiv, accusing what it called the "leading countries" in NATO, "NATO" of supporting what it described as "neo-Nazis in Ukraine". ".
This comes at a time when Russia requires Ukraine to abandon any plans to join military entities, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and to maintain complete neutrality, which Kyiv considers an "interference in its sovereignty" to end the operation.
Thousands died in the war that forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes.
Relations between Kyiv and Moscow have been tense for about 8 years, against the backdrop of Russia's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea and its support for separatists loyal to it in the "Donbass".