Putin threatens West with nuclear strike if NATO sends troops to Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western nations against sending troops to fight in Ukraine, saying that Moscow’s nuclear weapons were capable of striking targets in the West.

The West “must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?” Putin said at his annual state of the nation address on Thursday.

Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of sending Western troops into Ukraine to aid its war effort against Russia, saying the idea couldn’t be ruled out. NATO allies, however, quickly rebuffed Macron’s suggestion, saying there are currently no plans to deploy NATO-affiliated troops to the Ukrainian front.

European nations are bracing for the possibility that Russia, emboldened by its recent successes in Ukraine, could attack a NATO member. Putin has previously rejected the suggestion that he would order such a military operation, calling the theory “nonsense.”