NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia Thursday not to cross "a very important line" of using nuclear weapons.
Both NATO and Russia are scheduled to hold nuclear exercises this month.
Brussels, Oct. 14 (DP.net).– A meeting of NATO’s secretive Nuclear Planning Group was held among defense ministers in Brussels, as concerns deepen over Putin’s insistence that he will use any means necessary to defend Russian territory. NATO is believed to have warned its members about the possibility the Russian dictator may have decided to detonate a nuke on Ukraine's borders, in an escalation designed to terrify the West. A senior defense source, however, said that a more likely demonstration of Putin’s readiness to use nuclear weapons could come in the Black Sea, The Times of London reports.
Asked what NATO would do if Russia launched a nuclear attack, NATO General Secretary Stoltenberg said: “We will not go into exactly how we will respond, but of course, this will fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. It will mean that a very important line has been crossed.” He added that "even any use of a smaller nuclear weapon will be a very serious thing, fundamentally changing the nature of the war in Ukraine, and of course, that would have consequences."
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also warned Putin not to cross that threshold. “Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated,” he said in a speech in Bruges, Belgium.
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