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Johnson: Putin 'would be crazy' to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine

1 min read

U.K. ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Sky News that he doesn’t think Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will use tactical nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine. Such a military strike would put Russia into a “cryogenic economic freeze” and lead to a “total disaster” for the country, Johnson said.

Johnson added that in case of a nuclear attack, Putin would “lose a lot of the middle ground of global tacit acquiescence that he’s had.”

On Oct. 27, Putin claimed Russia's leadership "had never talked about using nuclear weapons" and that a nuclear strike on Ukraine would make neither political nor military sense. He also accused the West, including former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss, of “engaging in nuclear blackmail” against Moscow.

Previously Putin had repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons when discussing the war with Ukraine.

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Russia failed to break Ukraine’s army on the battlefield, and now it’s trying to do it through a peace plan that would cap Ukraine’s forces at 600,000. Some argue that Ukraine would shrink its army — currently estimated at about 800,000 — after the war anyway.

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