The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the United States plans to inflame the conflict in Ukraine until at least the end of 2025, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press conference: “Washington plans to warm up hostilities in Ukraine until at least the end of 2025, they themselves plan that on the basis of those documents that are not hidden from anyone.
Zakharova pointed out that the American media are already enjoying the details of the White House-Kyiv-White House corruption marathon today, which explains the desire of the administration of US President Joe Biden to convince Congress to include additional assistance to Kyiv in the amount of $ 37 billion in 2023, the lion’s share of which will go to the needs Ukrainian army and after that it will be decided which of them “settled” in European and international banks and private funds.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin said last Wednesday that his army could still fight in Ukraine for a long time, but he sees no point in mobilizing additional soldiers at this stage.
He pointed to the escalation of the danger of nuclear war, while stressing that Moscow had not “lost its mind” and considered its nuclear arsenal only a defensive deterrent, in turn, Washington accused Putin of “irresponsibility” and that he spoke about nuclear weapons “frivolously” .
“We are not crazy, we know what nuclear weapons are,” Putin said during a televised meeting with the Kremlin-affiliated Russian Council for Civil Society and Human Rights.
In his reply to one of the speakers today, Putin said: “New lands have appeared” and this is “an important result for Russia.” serious business,” referring to the sea bordering Russia and southeast Ukraine, which is completely controlled by Moscow.
And this month, after retreating in September, the Russian army was forced to withdraw from Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, in northeastern Ukraine.
The Russian President said: “We consider weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, as a means of defense (by resorting to it) on the basis of what we call ‘retaliation’: if we are hit, we will hit back.” But he showed that “the threat of nuclear war is rising” given the confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine, blaming the Americans and Europeans for it.
In turn, the United States accused Putin of “irresponsibility” after his statements about the danger of using nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine.
State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to answer Putin directly, but said: “Any frivolity in talking about nuclear weapons is completely irresponsible.”
For his part, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview published Thursday that the risk of Moscow using nuclear weapons in an invasion of Ukraine has diminished as the international community, including China, “draws a red line” for Moscow regarding its threat.
“At the moment, one thing has changed: Russia has stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons,” Schultz said. Regarding the risks of a nuclear escalation in Ukraine, Schultz said: “We’ve stopped it for now.”
Asked about the controversy recently raised by French President Emmanuel Macron about providing Russia with security “guarantees” to end the conflict in Ukraine, Scholz acknowledged that the European security architecture will inevitably be the subject of discussion at the end.
