Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the world to
"prepare"
for Russia's possible use of its nuclear weapons, during an interview with several Ukrainian media.
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“We should not wait for the moment when Russia decides to use its nuclear weapons. We have to prepare for this
,” he said in the interview broadcast by six Ukrainian news sites, as well as the Ukrainian presidency on Telegram.
We need
"drugs (against radiation), air-raid shelters
," he said.
“We have to talk to them, sign treaties, crack down economically.
(The Russians) can use any weapon, I am convinced of that.”
Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky had already ruled that
"the whole world"
should be
"worried"
about the risk that Russian President Vladimir Putin, cornered by his military setbacks in Ukraine, will resort to a tactical nuclear weapon.
"Not just me, I think the whole world, all countries should be worried
," he told CNN.
He echoed the statements to this effect of the head of American foreign intelligence William Burns who had estimated the day before that
such a threat should not be
“taken lightly” .
"We haven't really seen any concrete signs such as deployments or military measures that could aggravate our concerns
," the CIA chief had however qualified.
After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Kremlin briefly mentioned putting its nuclear forces on alert.
Moscow will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine only in the event of
an “existential threat”
against Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov then declared on CNN, without further details.
According to the highly respected Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russia is equipped with
"1,588 deployed Russian nuclear warheads"
, including 812 on land-based missiles, 576 on submarines and 200 on bombers.