Russia warns NATO ally not to underestimate threat of nuclear war

Russia’s Ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, has warned his country, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), not to underestimate the threat of nuclear war.

It has been more than two years since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. As the war rages, Ukraine has received aid primarily from the United States and European countries. NATO condemned the Russian invasion and stood with Ukraine in the conflict.

Denmark has pledged to deliver 19 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this summer, as Ukraine’s allies were urged to consider loosening the reins on how kyiv can use the weapons they want. were provided.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Norwegian channel TV2 on Tuesday that kyiv was “welcome to use what we gave to Ukraine, also outside Ukraine, that is, on Russian targets, if this is consistent with international law. However, she did not specify whether this would apply to F-16 fighter jets.

Barbin told Danish news agency Ritzau that Frederiksen’s “support for the idea that Ukraine would use weapons supplied by Copenhagen against targets in Russia could lead to the conflict spiraling out of control.”

“Strikes with long-range weapons require direct technical assistance from NATO countries, which Copenhagen is well aware of. However, Denmark seems to want to give Kyiv carte blanche to provoke a direct confrontation between NATO and NATO. Russia. The consequences will be devastating,” Russian state news agency TASS reported on Thursday.

Barbin commented directly on the F-16 fighter jets, warning that their delivery “would be considered a nuclear threat.”

“Denmark should not scoff at Russia’s repeated warnings that the emergence of F-16s in Ukraine would be considered a nuclear threat,” the ambassador said. “Russia cannot ignore the fact that these planes are capable of carrying nuclear weapons. This position was publicly expressed by the Russian Foreign Ministry and was also conveyed to NATO countries through diplomatic channels.”

News week contacted the Russian government via an online form as well as the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Denmark via email for comment.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed NATO countries for the war, saying they are inciting Ukraine to continue it.

“The member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, the United States in particular, and other European capitals have in recent days and weeks come closer to a new wave of escalation of tensions. They are doing it on purpose ” Peskov said, according to a report by the TASS agency. published Thursday.

“We are aware that this negative trend in their approach unfortunately persists. They are inciting Ukraine by all means to continue this senseless war.”

The Russian official warned: “This will obviously inevitably lead to consequences. This will ultimately be very detrimental to the interests of countries that have chosen the path of escalation.”

Ease restrictions?

At a joint news conference earlier this month with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in kyiv, Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked whether President Joe Biden’s administration was considering to relax its ban on Ukraine using American weapons on Russian territory.

“We have not encouraged or permitted strikes outside of Ukraine, but ultimately Ukraine must make its own decisions about how it is going to fight this war, a war that it is waging to defend its freedom, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity,” he added. » Blinken said. “And we will continue to support Ukraine with the equipment that it needs to succeed, that it needs to win.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has urged member states to reconsider their restrictions on arms donations.

“The Allies provide many types of military support to Ukraine and some of them have imposed certain restrictions on the use of these weapons… These are national decisions,” Stoltenberg said in a speech Thursday in Prague, Czech Republic. .

“But I think in light of how this war has evolved… the time has come to consider some of these restrictions, to allow the Ukrainians to actually defend themselves.”