NATO and the EU warn that the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia increases the nuclear risk

Vladimir Putin maintains his plan to absorb Ukraine, a country he considers fictitious.

And the objective of the Russian president to annex through illegal referendums the invaded and occupied territories in the neighboring country, together with the threat that he will use any means to "defend" Russia, raises the nuclear risk in Europe, warn sources from the NATO.

The members of the Atlantic Alliance have warned that they will not recognize the annexation of Ukrainian regions to Russia, but the head of the Kremlin, who is trying to redraw the borders by force, has warned that any attack on what he considers his territory could trigger This answer.

One more step in his threat that comes when several Western countries are considering sending long-range weapons to Ukraine.

"Putin's threats must be taken seriously,"

The head of the Kremlin has entered into a "dangerous and reckless rhetoric", has influenced the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, who has remarked that the organization "will not participate" in this dynamic.

Russia knows there will be "serious consequences" if it uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Stoltenberg warned Thursday in an interview on CNN from New York, where he has attended the UN Assembly.

“I won't elaborate on how we will react, that depends on the type of weapons of mass destruction they can use,” he said.

"We are sending messages [about those consequences] and we are making it clear to prevent it from happening," the NATO secretary general said.

“The probability of any use of nuclear weapons is still low, but the potential consequences are so great that we have to take this seriously.

On Thursday, one day after Putin's televised intervention and the calling of pseudo-referendums in four invaded Ukrainian regions - which began on Friday and end on Tuesday - the North Atlantic Council issued a statement condemning the votes and It stresses that the allies "do not and will never recognize" as part of Russia the occupied regions of Ukraine, including Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014 with another pseudo-referendum, held with a military presence.

"These Russian decisions, including a partial military mobilization, are a new escalation in Russia's illegal war against Ukraine," says the text signed by the 30 partners of the Military Alliance, founded in 1949 and of which Spain has been a part since 1986 .

The escalation in the threat from Putin comes at a time of dilemma for the West, as some countries consider sending next-generation, long-range, defensive weapons to Ukraine.

The head of the Kremlin, who has assured that his threat is not "a bluff", thus tries to shield a territory that he considers part of Russia.

Last July, the Secretary of State of the United States, which has sent state-of-the-art weapons that are helping the kyiv army in its successful counteroffensive against the Kremlin forces, remarked that the government of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had promised not to use those systems against Russian territory.

"The best way to avoid an escalation is for Russia to stop the aggression and the war that it started," said Antony Blinken at the time.

Brussels sees the threats, the mobilization and the call for illegal votes as a sign of Putin's weakness;

that he is losing ground.

“The Russian leader wants to fracture Western support for Ukraine with his incessant nuclear rhetoric.

He seeks to frighten and dissuade, ”says a community source.

The EU's high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, has demanded a clear signal from world leaders against the use of weapons of mass destruction.

"President Putin continues down the dangerous path of escalation," Borrell said Thursday at the UN Assembly.

"He is trying to intimidate Ukraine and all the countries that support it," added the head of European diplomacy.

Some Western leaders have already expressed concern about Putin's escalation and the actions he may take at a key moment in the war, with the Ukrainian army regaining ground and when the Kremlin chief's decision to mobilize tens of thousands of men to swell its Armed Forces has shaken Russian homes.

The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, has admitted that there is concern.

In New York, the head of the Spanish Government insisted that we must "appeal to prudence" and "not contribute to the verbal escalation that could justify any unilateral action for Putin".

However, after Putin's attack, his diplomatic and security apparatus continues to stir fear of a nuclear scenario.

On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov assured that the use of nuclear weapons is well included in Russian doctrine, although Moscow is not making threats with its nuclear weapons and that a confrontation with the United States and NATO is not in the offing. His plans.

"We hope that the Administration [of the American Joe] Biden is also aware of the danger of an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict in Ukraine," said Ryabkov, who is usually one of the moderate voices of the Russian Executive.

Meanwhile, former President Dmitri Medvedev insisted that after the Ukrainian regions are incorporated into Russia, any attack against them would be considered an attack against Russia.

Under the Russian doctrine, he said he,

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