Putin threatens nuclear war

Russian President Vladimir Putin said there is a "real risk of nuclear war" if Western countries send troops to fight in Ukraine.  Threatening that his country possesses weapons capable of striking targets in the West, the 71-year-old Putin praised Russia's highly modernized and world's largest nuclear arsenal.

Addressing parliament and other elite members of the country, Putin noted that Western leaders do not understand how dangerous it can be to interfere in what Russia describes as its internal affairs. 

Strongly criticizing French President Emmanuel Macron's idea of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine, Putin said, "Western countries must realize that we also have weapons capable of hitting targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict where nuclear weapons will be used and civilization will be destroyed. Don't they understand this?!" 

Macron's proposal had been rejected by the US, Germany, the UK, and others. 

REMINDER OF HITLER AND NAPOLEON

The 71-year-old Putin, who has ruled Russia for over 20 years, spoke ahead of the March 15-17 presidential election, in which he is certain to be re-elected for a 6-year term.

Reminding Western politicians of the fate of figures like Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler and France's Napoleon Bonaparte, who unsuccessfully invaded his country in the past, Putin said, "But now the consequences will be much more tragic. They think this (war) is a cartoon."

The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin had previously warned about the dangers of a direct conflict between NATO and Russia.