Putin issues 'wiped off face of earth' nuclear threat to any nations threatening Russia

Warmonger Vladimir Putin issued a chilling warning today that any nation daring to attack Russia with nuclear weapons would be wiped off the face of the earth. The increasingly vitriolic dictator – whose invasion of neighbour Ukraine is floundering – said Russia did not have plans to launch a preventative nuclear attack, unlike the United States.

Waving his own military arsenal around, Putin said his country’s advanced hypersonic weapons would ensure Russia would respond forcefully to any threat.

He made his sabre-rattling comments at a meeting of regional heads in the Kyrgyz capital Bishek

Putin told reporters that Moscow was opened to striking a deal despite heavy fighting continuing in the east and south of Ukraine as Russian troops attempt an offensive.

The most brutal engagements have been mostly in regions that Russia illegally annexed in September. Ukraine’s presidential office said five civilians have been killed and another 13 have been wounded by Russian shelling in the last 24 hours.

NATO membership looks set to increase in response to the Russian invasion but the Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian broadcaster war between the treaty organisation was still a major concern.

He said: “If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong. 

“It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia. We are working on that every day to avoid that.”

Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said in the interview that “there is no doubt that a full-fledged war is a possibility,” adding that it was important to avoid a conflict “that involves more countries in Europe and becomes a full-fledged war in Europe.”

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Speaking Friday via video link to defense and security chiefs of several ex-Soviet nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin again accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool against his country.

He said: “For many years, the West shamelessly exploited and pumped out its resources, encouraged genocide and terror in the Donbas and effectively turned the country into a colony.

“Now it’s cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, as a ram against Russia by continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, sending mercenaries and pushing it to a suicidal track.”

On the ground the reality of the war is disputed by the Ukrainians who claim it is the Russians who are using their people as cannon fodder.  In Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, regional Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Ukrainian military was pushing its counteroffensive toward Kreminna and Svatove.

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He voiced hope Ukraine can reclaim control of Kreminna by year’s end, and then by the end of winter reclaim areas in the region that were captured by Russia since the war began.

In the south, Kherson regional Gov. Yaroslav Yanyshevych said eight civilians were wounded by Russian shelling in the last 24 hours, and in the city of Kherson that Ukraine retook last month, a children’s hospital and a morgue were damaged.

In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces shelled Nikopol and Chervonohryhorivka, which are across the Dnieper River from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Zaporizhzhia Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said Russian shelling damaged residential buildings and power lines.

In the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said three civilians were wounded by Russian shelling, with one later dying.

source: express.co.uk