President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine it would be considered a significant escalation of the war.
Putin, speaking just days before a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, said the nuclear war scenario was not “rushing” up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question whether the country was really ready for a nuclear war.
Putin said the U.S. understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory - or to Ukraine - Russia would treat the move as an intervention.
It’s a question of numbers and volume … the US or the Russians can stop a dozen maybe 20 long range nuclear weapons of whatever type. If North Korean launched everything they had, the US will likely be able to take all of them down if they were aimed at the US. One, two or three may make it through but I don’t think so, the US has hundreds of anti-missile systems so they have lots of chances to take stuff down.
The scary scenario is with the Russians … each side will launch thousands of weapons, dummy weapons, anti-missile, and actual missile systems … in all out warfare, they’ll fill the sky with all kinds of equipment to counter, counter-counter, counter-counter-counter systems and it all will still mean hundreds of nuclear weapons will make it to their target.