Putin boasts Russia has upgraded entire nuclear arsenal as he goads West over Ukraine ‘failures’
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Russia has almost upgraded its entire nuclear arsenal with its defence industry beginning to outstrip the West, Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
The proportion of modernised weaponry available to Russia’s nuclear forces “has been brought to 95 per cent”, Russia’s president told a defence ministry meeting in Moscow.
He added that the strategic forces were being kept at the highest level of readiness as the West wages a “hybrid war” against Russia.
Russia’s ammunition production is seven times greater than the west’s, according to Kusti Salm, a senior Estonian defence ministry official. Putin’s ordnance manufacturers are on track to boost shell production to two million per year.
As Putin revived his nuclear rhetoric, he boasted that the war in Ukraine had shifted in his favour.
It comes amid failed attempts by the US and EU to provide Kyiv with almost £90 billion of aid it has promised Ukraine.
‘We do what we think is necessary, what we want’
The Russian president claimed his invasion forces “have the initiative” on the battlefield, adding: “We do what we think is necessary, what we want.”
He claimed Ukraine “suffered heavy losses and has largely squandered its reserves”.
In a dig at Ukraine’s international allies, Putin said the “myth of invulnerability of Western military equipment has also collapsed”.
“All attempts, as they say in the West, to inflict a strategic military defeat on us were beaten by the courage and fortitude of our soldiers, clashing with the greater power of our armed forces, the potential of the national industry and defence production,” he added.
Russia’s defence industry had reacted quicker to the conflict in Ukraine than the West, he said.
Russia would also be prepared to talk to Ukraine, the US and Europe about the future of Ukraine if they wanted to, Putin said.
“In Ukraine, those who are aggressive towards Russia, and in Europe and in the United States – do they want to negotiate?” He asked.
‘We will not give up what is ours’
“Let them. But we will do it based on our national interests. We will not give up what is ours.”
He added that to promise Ukraine it would one be a Nato member “is not acceptable for Russia in 10 years, and not in 20”.
Putin went on to claim that the west was scheming to divide Russia up into parts.
“And Russia itself, as we know, was planned to be divided into parts... five... They did not hide it. Everything was discussed openly, openly discussed.”
He said western countries “worked with the Russian fifth column, separatists and international terrorist organisations” in an attempt to “destroy” Russia.
Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, told the same meeting that Russia had introduced the Avangard hypersonic nuclear missile to its forces and is continuing to bring the Yard intercontinental ballistic missile into service.
Putin and his defence minister oversaw drills in October that simulated “massive nuclear strike by strategic forces in response to an enemy’s nuclear attack”.
