ISLAMABAD/MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that his country will not use nuclear weapons first, but the threat of a nuclear war is rising.
Addressing the annual human rights council meeting in Moscow via video link, Putin said that Russia had not gone mad to use atomic weapons first, but insisted that his country would only use weapons of mass destruction if it (Russia) was attacked with nukes.
Russian nuclear weapons
Earlier, some Russian officials had threatened to use the nukes after its invasion of Ukraine. Since then, it has come under scrutiny from western countries that assess its ability to use nuclear weapons.
Putin said that the threat of using nuclear weapons was growing and it would be wrong to sweep it under the carpet.
He, however, insisted that Russia would never use the weapons first to threaten anyone with its nuclear arsenal.
He said his country would not beat about the bush running around the world and brandishing this weapon like a razor.
Putin also said that Russia has the most sophisticated and advanced nuclear weapons in the world, but it never relocated them to other territories like the US, which has located its atomic weapons in different regions.
