The chief spokesperson for Russia's President Vladimir Putin would not rule out Russia's willingness to use nuclear weapons if Moscow perceived it was faced with an "existential threat."
Dmitry Peskov was asked multiple times by CNN's Christiane Amanpouron Tuesday if Russia would be willing to use nuclear weapons. Peskov also revealed that Putin does not believe Russia has achieved its goal in the invasion of Ukraine telling Amanpour, "Well, first of all, not yet. He hasn't achieved yet," and said that the invasion is "going on strictly in accordance with the plans and the purposes that were established beforehand."
Peskov said that Putin demands that the invasion gets "rid of the military potential of Ukraine." Moscow also wants to remove what it calls "nationalist battalions," and Putin demands that Ukraine accept that Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, is part of Russia and that the breakaway statelets of Luhansk and Donetsk "are already independent states."
