Russia’s president “will not allow” Ukraine to obtain a nuclear weapon, believes the West is largely responsible for the magnitude of the conflict and says he is willing to negotiate peace.
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Nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the responsibility of the West and the conditions for peace. Vladimir Putin addressed all these issues over the course of two hours, in statements to the media of the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and alerted the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) about a possible “dangerous provocation.” ”.
On Thursday morning in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put on the table a scenario in which Ukraine would once again have nuclear weapons in its arsenal, if it did not receive support from NATO. Although the Ukrainian head of state and the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance have strengthened their union, Putin, quoted by the Russian state agency TASS, wanted to make his opinion clear on the matter. For the Russian president, any suggestion in this sense is a “provocation”, a “dangerous provocation”.reinforced. He also adds that he “will not allow” Ukraine to obtain a nuclear weapon, whether self-produced or imported from the West, since it would be something “very difficult to hide.”
“NATO is fighting Russia through Ukrainian soldiers,” Vladimir Putin said, following the idea that the West is largely responsible for the escalation of the current conflict with Ukraine, which he says began in 2014 and has worsened in 2022. “The armed forces of Ukraine do not have the ability to use high-precision weapons, everything is done by NATO specialists,” emphasizes the president of Russia. That said, Putin says he is interested in ending the conflict and is willing to resume peace negotiations. However, he reinforces that his conditions for signing an agreement are the same as those he urged in Istanbul, in 2022. Among them are the neutrality of Ukraine – prohibiting entry into NATO – and, also, a limitation of its military power.
The Russian Head of State goes further and says that he is not interested in a “ceasefire for a week or a year”, but is focused on meeting the conditions for a lasting peace. If the kyiv regime does not accept these terms, Putin says he is prepared to continue the military operation on Ukrainian territory. “Victory will be ours,” he concludes, while praising Western forces for understanding that it is “impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield.”
Asked about the G20 summit, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro in November of this year, in statements to CNN Brazil, Vladimir Putin indicated that he will not be present, after weeks of media speculation. “Would he go to the summit on purpose to ruin it? No. The Russian government will have a representative at the summit,” said the president of Russia, who saw an international arrest warrant issued in his name by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Putin also justifies the decision by having a “friendly relationship” with his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva. Regarding the ICC order, the Russian head of state highlights that “respect for an entity that is neither universal nor independent is very low.” Despite this invocation of the Court, Lula da Silva had already revealed his position: his Russian counterpart “could go to Brazil in peace” and that it would be “a lack of respect” to try to arrest him on Brazilian soil.
Source: Observadora
