Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday (18th March) that an immediate clash between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would bring the world one step closer to World War III, but added that no one wanted such a scenario.
Putin has often warned of the dangers of nuclear war but claims he has never felt the need to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated last month that he could not rule out the deployment of foot soldiers in Ukraine in the future, with many Western nations opposing it while others, particularly in Eastern Europe, showed support.
When asked by Reuters about Macron’s words and the risks and possibilities of a confrontation between Russia and NATO, Putin responded: “Everything is possible in the modern world.” “Everyone understands that this is one step away from a full-fledged World War III. “I believe almost no one is interested in this,” Putin told reporters after winning the largest landslide in post-Soviet Russian history.
Putin did, however, add that NATO military soldiers were already in Ukraine and that Russia had heard both English and French spoken on the battlefield. “There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they are dying there and in large numbers,” he went on to say.
Putin’s re-election as the president
Vladimir Putin was re-elected as Russia’s president for another six years, allowing him to escalate his conflict in Ukraine and confront the West, with the Kremlin claiming record popular support for him in a referendum with predetermined results.
Preliminary results suggest Putin has 87.3 percent support with half of the ballots tabulated, according to Central Election Commission figures shown on state television late Sunday. That considerably outpaced the incumbent president’s previous record of 77% in the 2018 elections.
Buffer-zone
Shortly of the scheduled March 15-17 Russian election, Ukraine increased its attacks on Russia, blasting border regions and even using proxies to try to breach Russia’s borders.
When asked if he thought it was essential to take over Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, Putin responded that if the attacks persisted, Russia would establish a buffer zone out of more Ukrainian land to safeguard Russian territory.
“I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain ‘sanitary zone’ in the territories today under the Kyiv regime,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated.
He declined to provide any further information but said such a zone could have to be large enough to prevent foreign-made arms from entering Russian territory.
