Will Russia-Ukraine conflict to lead to nuclear war? Putin's ally suggests so

A senior Russian lawmaker warned Thursday (September 19) that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory using Western-supplied missiles would lead to a “global war with the use of nuclear weapons.”

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Moscow would respond with more powerful weapons if the West authorised such attacks.

“Russia will give a tough response using more powerful weapons,” he said, adding that a strike with the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, known as “Satan II,” could reach Strasbourg, a French city located close to the country’s border with Germany, in just over three minutes.

Volodin’s comments come amid escalating tensions between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine, which has led to the most serious confrontation between the two sides since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. That Cold War standoff brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict.

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But that was not the immediate context of his threat. Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, was reacting to a European Parliament vote supporting Ukraine’s right to target Russian military positions with Western weapons.

The status quo “hinders Ukraine’s ability to fully exercise its right to self-defence under international public law and leaves Ukraine exposed to attacks on its population and infrastructure,” the resolution read.

The resolution was adopted on Thursday just hours after Volodin’s comments with 425 votes in favour, 131 against and 63 abstentions.

Kyiv has been pleading with its allies to allow it to use donated arms to strike “legitimate” military targets deep in Russian territory, like the air bases used by Russian planes in their relentless bombardment of Ukraine.

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On the Ukrainian side, newly appointed Foreign Minister Andrii Sybia welcomed the resolution which he said showed “decisiveness and leadership” from the European Parliament.

With inputs from agencies