Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the West against an escalation of the war in Ukraine, saying Moscow was ready to use “all weapons” in its arsenal – including nuclear – if its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad was attacked.
Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow on Thursday, the Russian leader said he did not intend to attack any European country but was ready to respond to Western aggression if necessary and referred to Russian territory sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
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President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia would consider using the full range of weapons in its arsenal if its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad was threatened.
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President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia would consider using the full range of weapons in its arsenal if its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad was threatened.
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Putin says Russia will consider using the full range of weapons in its arsenal if Kaliningrad is threatened
The warning follows recent NATO military exercises near Kaliningrad, which the bloc described as defensive exercises aimed at strengthening deterrence. These exercises raised serious concerns from Moscow, which warned in late September that it would retaliate if NATO tried to blockade the enclave by air or sea.
“Exercises in the Baltic Sea come one after another… Then attempts to arrest our ships and ships. All this is an escalation. And then we began to hear statements regarding the Kaliningrad region,” Putin said.
“If it comes to a direct attack on the Russian Federation, in this case on Kaliningrad and possibly on other territories, the question of the use of all weapons from the arsenal of our country will inevitably and inevitably appear on the agenda. This is inevitable,” he warned.
NATO, several European countries and the United Kingdom have accused Russia of waging a hybrid war against them, including cyberattacks, sabotage attempts and espionage, aimed at breaking their support for Ukraine.
Russia’s war in Ukraine, described by Moscow as a “special military operation”, is now in its fifth year, but Putin shows no signs of slowing his offensive and has instead intensified strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and its capital, kyiv, as an expected freezing winter approaches.
But recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries have led to widespread fuel shortages, shattering the illusion that the consequences of the conflict are far removed from ordinary Russians.
Long lines of cars outside gas stations were seen in major cities, while attacks on Russia’s biggest online retailers increased pressure on an already strained wartime economy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regularly refers to Ukrainian drone strikes deep within Russian territory as “long-range sanctions,” intended to reduce Russia’s revenues and military capacity and pressure the Kremlin to negotiate.
In his speech to foreign policy and international affairs academics on Thursday, Putin admitted that the Ukrainian strikes were taking a toll on the Russian economy, saying they had cost Russia 1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) and that Ukrainian military maneuvers in the Black Sea had destroyed more than 100 Russian ships.
However, Putin also made it clear that he was undeterred.
“In the Black Sea, it’s a combat zone; we’ve hit military ships and ships carrying military cargo, and we’ve almost never made a mistake. Throughout this whole saga, they (Ukraine) have destroyed more than 100 of our ships. Well, we started fighting back, and now we’re being bombarded with calls from all directions: ‘Oh, please stop doing this,'” Putin said.
“It’s the same story with our oil refineries; they (Ukraine) openly declared that their goal was to harm our economy. Did they succeed? In part – according to our estimates, we lost about 1% of our GDP. And this was done deliberately – these are civilian targets, after all. Well, they had a mirror response,” Putin added, unaware that it was Moscow that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin’s admission of the economic toll comes just a day after he told newly elected members of the State Duma – the lower house of Russia’s parliament, which predictably saw the Putin-backing United Russia party retain its majority – that the Russian economy was stable.
Taking the opportunity to attack Ukraine, the Russian president on Wednesday ridiculed kyiv’s dependence on financial aid from its Western allies.
“Mistakes, especially now, are absolutely unacceptable,” he warned parliamentarians. “Unlike some, and we won’t point fingers, Russia cannot go around the world humiliating itself begging for help with both hands,” he said.
“Firstly, because, as I said before, it is humiliating. Secondly, no one will give us anything, and we know that very well. And thirdly, and most importantly, we don’t need it. The Russian financial system and economy are safe,” he continued.
While signaling in recent weeks that he has no intention of withdrawing from the war in Ukraine, Putin has also said he would prefer the conflict to end through talks.
Before the election, Putin said the results would show Russians were united by the military and its goals — although the Levada Center, an independent polling organization, found in an August poll that 59 percent of Russians favored peace talks.
In another sign that Putin has no plans to slow down the “special military operation,” budget documents reviewed by Reuters show that Russia plans to spend 17.1 trillion rubles ($205.112 billion) on defense in 2027, about 27% more than originally planned and the highest level since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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