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By David Brennan
Diplomatic Correspondent
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The U.S. "will not be intimidated" by continued Russian nuclear brinkmanship, the State Department has said, after President Vladimir Putin used his annual state of the nation address to deliver a new salvo of threats against the West related to its backing of Ukraine.
A State Department spokesperson told Newsweek that the U.S. takes "Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons seriously, as we have throughout Russia's war against Ukraine. This kind of irresponsible rhetoric is no way for the leader of a nuclear armed state to speak."
"We will not be intimidated by Putin's rhetoric," the spokesperson said. "Putin knows what would happen if he uses this kind of weapon—we've communicated directly and privately with Russia about the consequences."
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Putin warned on Thursday that Russia's "strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness," adding: "Russia won't let anyone interfere in its internal affairs."
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Western nations, Putin said, "must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don't they get that?"
His remarks came soon after French President Emmanuel Macron suggested deploying NATO troops to Ukraine in support and advisory roles, a proposal the Kremlin said would make a war between Russia and the West inevitable.
Separately, the Financial Times this week published allegedly leaked Russian military documents suggesting that Moscow's threshold for using tactical nuclear weapons was lower than previously believed.
The State Department told Newsweek on Thursday it has no "indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons and will continue to monitor this carefully."
The danger of nuclear escalation—whether via nuclear weapons, or an accident or attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant—has loomed over Moscow's full-scale invasion from its start.
Western leaders, including President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, have consistently warned that a direct Russia-NATO confrontation is unthinkable given the nuclear stakes.
NATO leaders—especially from nations on the alliance's long eastern frontier with Russia—have warned that direct conflict with Moscow is a danger, suggesting the West has between three and 10 years to prepare for war. Putin and his top officials are already routinely referring to their war on Ukraine as a conflict with the "collective West."
Nonetheless, Putin dismissed such concerns as "nonsense," adding: "At the same time they themselves are choosing targets for striking our territory"; a reference to Scholz's revelation that British and French personnel are helping Ukraine target Russian positions with Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles.
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