Kremlin spokesman: Russia would use nuclear weapons only in case of ‘threat to existence of state’

FILE PHOTO: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a joint news conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow, Russia February 18, 2022. Sputnik/Sergey Guneev/Kremlin via REUTERS

March 28, 2022

(Reuters) – Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told PBS in an interview on Monday that Russia would resort to nuclear weapons only in the case of a “threat to the existence” of his country – and not as a result of the current conflict with Ukraine.

“But any outcome of the operation (in Ukraine), of course is not a reason for usage of a nuclear weapon,” Peskov said. “We have a security concept that very clearly states that only when there is a threat for existence of the state, in our country, we can use and we will actually use nuclear weapons to eliminate the threat for the existence of our country.”

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie Adler)