BREAKING: #Russia Vows To Use Chemical Attack On #Ukraine If, Top Diplomat – #UkraineRussiaWar—–A top Russian diplomat said Moscow retains the right to use nuclear weapons if it is ‘provoked’ by Nato.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, made the chilling warning after Vladimir Putin’s spokesman refused to rule out nuking Ukraine in the face of an ‘existential threat’.
Asked if Putin was right to hold the prospect of nuclear war over the rest of the world, Mr Polyanskiy told Sky News: ‘If Russia is provoked by Nato, if Russia is attacked by Nato, why not, we are a nuclear power.
‘I don’t think it’s the right thing to be saying. But it’s not the right thing to threaten Russia, and to try to interfere.
‘So when you’re dealing with a nuclear power, of course, you have to calculate all the possible outcomes of your behaviour.’
Polyanskiy spoke from inside Russia’s mission to the UN in New York, where pictures of President Putin adorn the walls.
He dismissed the formal declaration by the US government that members of the Russian armed forces are guilty of war crimes in Ukraine.
Between sips of lemon tea he suggested footage showing Ukraine’s cities reduced to rubble due to Russian bombing could be fake.
He even made the preposterous claim that Ukraine is attacking its own buildings and civilians.
‘You believe one thing, I believe another thing,’ he said.
Polyanskiy’s comments come after Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also suggested Russia could resort to nuclear weapons.
CNN interviewer Christiane Amanpour pushed him on whether he was ‘convinced or confident’ that President Putin would not use the nuclear option.
He replied: ‘We have a concept of domestic security, and it’s public. You can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used.
‘So if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept.’
Neither Peskov nor Polyanskiy defined what they meant by provocation or a threat.
Russia has been ramping up its nuclear rhetoric as it fails to make any advances in Ukraine, one month on from the invasion.
On Wednesday night, state TV went into overdrive to warn Nato leaders meeting in Brussels today against deploying any troops even acting to maintain peace – or risk sparking a third world war.
Putin’s propaganda mouthpieces made unsubstantiated claims that Poland will seek a mandate to send in peacekeepers and that Warsaw could seek to grab back Ukrainian territory formerly part of Poland, like the city of Lviv.
