Russian president Vladimir Putin said in comments broadcast on Sunday that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen, and that he hoped it would not arise.
In a fragment of an upcoming interview with Russian state television published on Telegram, Mr Putin said that Russia has the strength and the means to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a “logical conclusion”.
Responding to a question about Ukrainian strikes on Russia from a state television reporter, Mr Putin said: “There has been no need to use those [nuclear] weapons ... and I hope they will not be required.”
He said: “We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires.”
Mr Putin in February 2022 ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine, in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” against its neighbour.
Though Russian troops were repelled from Kyiv, Moscow’s forces currently control about 20 per cent of Ukraine, including much of the south and east.
Mr Putin has in recent weeks expressed willingness to negotiate a peace settlement, as US president Donald Trump has said he wants to end the conflict via diplomatic means.
Fear of nuclear escalation has been a factor in US officials’ thinking since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Former CIA director William Burns has said there was a real risk in late 2022 that Russia could use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces struck a factory in Russia’s Bryansk region destroying much of the facility, the local governor said on Sunday.
In a statement on Telegram, governor Alexander Bogomaz, whose Bryansk region borders both Ukraine and Belarus in the far west of Russia, said that the workshops and administrative buildings of the factory in the village of Suzemka had been destroyed.
There were no casualties, he said.
Mash, a Telegram channel with links to Russia’s security services, said that the factory produces electrical equipment, including transformers. It said it had been struck with a Grad rocket system.
Mash posted video of a large plume of smoke, coiling above a factory. Reuters was unable to verify the footage.
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Ukraine has struck Russian industrial facilities that it accuse of producing equipment for Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine since the beginning of full-scale hostilities in February 2022.
Russia’s air defence units destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight over the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, Moscow’s defence ministry said on Sunday on social media.
Ukraine’s air defence units shot down 69 of 165 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, its air force said on Sunday.
It said 80 drones were lost, in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them, or they were drone simulators that did not carry warheads. – Reuters
