The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine will soon run out of its own military equipment and will be completely reliant on hardware supplied to them by Western countries.
He also claims that that Ukraine hasn’t made any progress in its counter offensive and says the country had “no chance” against Russia’s army.
President Putin made the comment at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg today.
Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia has already moved some warheads to Belarus.
Earlier this month, Russia said it would deploy tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil from July.
Kyiv remains “absolutely calm” over the prospect, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov previously told the BBC.
According to Putin, nuclear weapons would only be used in the event of a threat to the existence of the Russian state.
But Russia has “no such need” to use them, he added.
But he refuses to be drawn further on the matter, asking the session host: “Do you want me to frighten the whole world? No, I don’t want to.”
Putin closed the discussion by saying Russia was using “all the power in our hands” against use of nuclear weapons.