Putin’s Nuke Talk Worries European Leader

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a documentary broadcast across Russia on March 15 that he was prepared to use nuclear weapons if Western powers had tried to prevent Moscow from seizing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula last year.

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The comments represent only the latest of many recent instances of nuclear threats from Russia.

Several of the nation’s latest military drills have included simulations of nuclear strikes; Russian state-run media recently ran a program called “Putin Can Destroy nato With a Single Phone Call,” during which it said Moscow could bomb the United States to “radioactive ash”; and, in recent months, Russian bombers—often equipped with nuclear weapons—have flown forays on the borders of nato airspace.