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Russians Continue To Threaten Nukes: Diplomat Warns If NATO Threatens Us We Have The Right To Press Nuclear Button

Russians Continue To Threaten Nukes: Diplomat Warns If NATO Threatens Us We Have The Right To Press Nuclear Button

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Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a cabinet meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Oct. 28, 2002. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS/Presidential Press Service) / Photo: solarseven / iStock, https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/solarseven?mediatype=photography 

Amid growing concerns that the war in Ukraine could degenerate into a world war, a Russian diplomat in the United Nations New York office said that Russia retains the right to press its nuclear button if “provoked” by NATO.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, was responding to comments by Vladimir Putin’s spokesman that Kremlin could bring out its nukes if it felt its existence was being threatened.

“If Russia is provoked by NATO, if Russia is attacked by NATO, why not? We are a nuclear power,” Polyanskiy said in an interview with British TV channel Sky News. The diplomat spoke from inside Russia’s mission to the U.N. in New York, where pictures of Vladimir Putin adorn the walls. Sky News is owned by a division of Comcast.

“I don’t think it’s the right thing to be saying but it’s not the right thing to threaten Russia, and to try to interfere. So when you’re dealing with a nuclear power, of course, you have to calculate all the possible outcomes of your behavior,” Polyanskiy said.

Analysts fear that Russia, which is armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, would consider using them to escalate the conflict if it feels it’s losing, and Ukraine’s Western backers are also armed with nukes, which means that the conflict — if it were to spiral beyond Ukraine — would pit nuclear powers against each other.

Russia has 6,257 nuclear warheads, while the U.S. admits to having 5,550, according to a January fact sheet released by the Arms Control Association. Both countries have increased their nuclear warheads since the Cold War ended in 1991.

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The threat of nuclear weapon use has risen since Russia invaded Ukraine, with Putin announcing that his country’s nuclear forces are on “high alert,” the Associated Press reported.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia should stop its “dangerous irresponsible nuclear rhetoric,” and warned that it could “never win a nuclear war.”

“It is not too late for Russia to change course, to step back from the brink, stop preparing for war and start working for a peaceful resolution,” Stoltenberg said at the Munich Security Conference.

Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a cabinet meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Oct. 28, 2002. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS/Presidential Press Service) / Photo: solarseven / iStock, https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/solarseven?mediatype=photography