Putin warns that sending Western troops to Ukraine risks a global nuclear war
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00:00 We can now bring in France 24's International Affairs Editor Ketavan Gojzisane.
00:04 Good afternoon Ketavan.
00:05 Vladimir Putin responded to a suggestion made by the French president earlier this week
00:10 of Western governments potentially sending troops to Ukraine.
00:13 Absolutely.
00:14 He didn't name Emmanuel Macron directly, but it was clearly a response to that.
00:19 He talked about the talks about possibly sending NATO troops to Ukraine and warned of tragic
00:26 consequences if NATO members were to go ahead with that type of plan.
00:32 He also warned them by saying that Russia also has weapons that could reach territories
00:40 of NATO member states.
00:42 So he used that suggestion by Emmanuel Macron to sort of ramp up his threats towards the
00:49 West.
00:50 He even threatened and warned about the possibility of having a nuclear conflict if that were
00:56 to happen.
00:57 So this was really for him a good excuse to sort of ramp up that sort of rhetoric, something
01:04 that we've heard in his address last year already, but this time it was really responding
01:10 to that possibility.
01:13 He also responded to the recent expansion of NATO with Sweden and Finland joining.
01:21 He said that because NATO was expanding, Russia needed to beef up, if you will, its Western
01:29 flank.
01:30 Of course, Russia and Finland have a shared border.
01:33 And so he believes that his country has to respond to that NATO expansion and beef up
01:39 its own security forces on that border.
01:42 He also used this address, of course, to sort of welcome the position in which Russian troops
01:49 are currently in Ukraine, saying that Russian troops were making gains everywhere on the
01:55 front lines in Ukraine and that the unity of the Russian population, the support of
02:00 the Russian population for what he calls the special military operation, the war in Ukraine,
02:06 that that was one of the reasons why Russian troops were doing so well.
02:11 So it was sort of a way to take pride in his army and also show the West that he was ready
02:20 to respond to whatever comes, even though it has to be said that despite Emmanuel Macron's
02:25 suggestions, a lot of Western allies have said that they had no intention on sending
02:32 troops in Ukraine.
02:33 Exactly.
02:34 And we didn't really get a clarification from the French president either to that comment.
02:38 Now, yesterday, Catherine Vanby had pro-Russian officials in the breakaway region of Transnistria
02:46 and near Moldova who have called for Moscow's help, an appeal for help from Moscow.
02:52 And we thought Vladimir Putin would address that appeal today, but he didn't.
02:57 He did not mention Transnistria or Moldova at all in that speech, which was about two
03:04 hours long.
03:05 And that was a little bit of a surprise because a lot of people were expecting him to sort
03:11 of at least mention it, maybe not respond directly.
03:15 And that is because recently the foreign ministry had spoken to state media saying that the
03:24 situation and the protection of the citizens of Transnistria was a priority for the Russian
03:30 government and that they would carefully review that request by those separatists.
03:36 So that was sort of showing that Russia was taking this seriously.
03:41 Why is it important?
03:42 It's important because this is something that the Russians have used in Ukraine, of course,
03:47 but in other regions, which is always to say there are Russian speakers, there are our
03:53 people in these regions, and we have a duty to protect them.
03:58 That was partly what they did with Eastern Ukraine.
04:01 That was one of the reasons, according to the Russians, to go into Eastern Ukraine was
04:06 to protect those Russian speakers in Eastern Ukraine.
04:10 And so the fear, at least from the West, when that call was made by the separatists in Transnistria
04:16 was that this could possibly lead to something similar to what we've seen in Ukraine.
04:21 So at least for now, the Russian president has decided not to delve into this potential.
04:29 But there is this question and the situation in Moldova and in Transnistria is very, very
04:36 tense and everyone is really looking at that closely, including the Americans who said
04:41 that they were monitoring the situation.