Russia is ready for nuclear war, says Putin

Russia remains in a state of combat readiness and is fully ready for a nuclear war, but not "everything is rushing to it" at present, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on March 13. In an interview with state media, Mr. Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is nearly certain to win the March 15 to 17 presidential election, said Russia would be ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty was threatened. "From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready," Mr. Putin told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question on whether the country was ready for a nuclear war.