The president said in comments published on Sunday that Russia had enough strength and resources to bring the war in Ukraine to its logical conclusion, although it expected that there would be no need to use nuclear weapons.
Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops to enter Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the largest terrestrial conflict in Europe since World War II and the greatest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the height of the Cold War.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed or injured, and the US president repeatedly said that he wants to end the “bloodbath” his government describes as a war by power of attorney between the United States and Russia.
In a state television movie about Putin’s fourth century as Russia’s supreme leader, entitled “Russia, Kremlin, Putin, 25,” Putin was questioned by a reporter about the risk of nuclear climbing due to war in Ukraine.
“They wanted to tease us to make mistakes,” Putin said, talking alongside a portrait of Tsar Alexander III, a nineteenth -century conservative who repressed dissent. “There was no need to use these weapons … and I hope they are not necessary.”
“We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion, with the result that Russia demands.”
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Trump has been signaling for weeks that he has been frustrated by Moscow and Kiev’s failure to reach an agreement to end the war, although Kremlin said the conflict is so complicated that the fast progress Washington wants is difficult.
Former US president Joe Biden, leaders of Western Europe and Ukraine have classified the invasion as an appropriation of imperial-style land and promised to repeatedly defeat the Russian forces, which control about a fifth of Ukraine.
Putin portrays war as a decisive moment in Moscow’s relations with the West, which, according to him, humiliated Russia after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, by expanding NATO and invading what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.
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Trump warned that the conflict could evolve to the Third World War. Former CIA director William Burns said there was a real risk for Russia to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine in late 2022, a statement that Moscow dismissed.
