Will Use Nuclear Weapons Only In Case Of “Threat To Existence Of State”, Says Russia Amid War Against Ukraine

The latest round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will be held on Tuesday in Istanbul, Turkey. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hoped that the in-person talks would be successful.

Ukraine-Russia Conflict: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said Russia will not use nuclear weapons in the ongoing war against Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview informed, “Any outcome of the operation (in Ukraine), of course, is not a reason for the usage of a nuclear weapon.”

He added, “We have a security concept that very clearly states that only when there is a threat to the existence of the state, we can and will actually use nuclear weapons to eliminate the threat to the existence of our country.”

The latest round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will be held on Tuesday in Istanbul, Turkey. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hoped that the in-person talks would be successful. Lavrov said a meeting between Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be meaningless unless the delegates had made some progress.

Peskov said the two country’s delegates had not made any “significant achievements or breakthroughs” so far but it was important to continue talks in person.

Ukraine, Russia hold new talks aimed at ending the fighting

The first face-to-face talks in two weeks between Russia and Ukraine began Tuesday in Turkey, raising flickering hopes there could be progress toward ending a war that has ground into a bloody campaign of attrition.

Ahead of the meeting in Istanbul, the Ukrainian president said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and is open to compromise over the contested eastern region of Donbas — comments that might lend momentum to negotiations. But he warned the “ruthless war” continued, and even the negotiators assembled, Russian forces hit an oil depot in western Ukraine and a government building in the south.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the two sides that they had a “historic responsibility” to stop the fighting.