Volodymyr Zelensky has called for world leaders to ensure Russia does not use nuclear weapons in response to its continued setbacks in Ukraine.
The Ukraine president claimed that Russian officials have begun to "prepare their society" for the possible use of nuclear weapons even if they are not yet ready to use them. He said action was needed now because Russia's threats were a "risk for the whole planet".
Moscow, he told the BBC, had "made a step already" by occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear station which Russian president Vladimir Putin is trying to turn into Russian property. He said around 500 Russian troops were at the plant, although the Ukrainian staff still operate it.
"The world can stop urgently the actions of Russian occupiers," he said. "The world can implement the sanction package in such cases and do everything to make them leave the nuclear power plant."
Zelensky denied having urged strikes on Russia, claiming that an earlier remark had been mistranslated. "You must use preventive kicks," he said, referring to sanctions, "not attacks".
In recent weeks, Putin and other senior Russian officials have suggested that nuclear weapons - possibly smaller, tactical weapons - could be employed, although Western officials say there has been no evidence Moscow is prepared to do so. Speaking in English at the president's office in Kyiv, Zelensky said: "They begin to prepare their society. That's very dangerous.
"They are not ready to do it, to use it. But they begin to communicate. They don't know whether they'll use or not use it. I think it's dangerous to even speak about it."
Then, in Ukrainian, he said through a translator, he told the BBC: "What we see is that Russia's people in power like life and thus I think the risk of using nuclear weapons is not that definite as some experts say, because they understand that there is no turning back after using it, not only the history of their country, but themselves as personalities."
He denied having called for strikes on Russia during an online event on Thursday, saying the Ukrainian word he had used had been misunderstood. The initial comment was denounced by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as "an appeal to start yet another world war", while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it demonstrated why Russia was right to launch its operation in Ukraine.
"After that translation," President Zelensky said, "they [the Russians] did their way, how it's useful for them, and began to retranslate it in other directions."
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s warning this week that the world is at risk of a nuclear “Armageddon” was designed to send an unvarnished message that no one should underestimate the extraordinary danger if Russia deploys tactical nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine, administration officials said.
The president’s grim assessment, delivered during a Democratic fundraiser on Thursday night, rippled around the globe and appeared to edge beyond the boundaries of current US intelligence assessments. US security officials continue to say they have no evidence that Vladimir Putin has imminent plans for a nuclear strike.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Russia’s talk of using nuclear weapons is irresponsible and there’s no way to use them without unintended consequences. It cannot happen.”
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