Vladimir Putin ‘hopes nuclear weapons will not be required’ in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine has not arisen and he hopes it will not.

In comments aired on Sunday in a film by Russian state television about his quarter of a century in power, Mr Putin said Moscow has the strength and the means to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a “logical conclusion”.

Responding to a question about Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, he said: “There has been no need to use those (nuclear) weapons … and I hope they will not be required.”

“We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires,” he said.

Mr Putin signed a revamped version of Russia’s nuclear doctrine in November, spelling out the circumstances that would allow him to use the world’s largest atomic arsenal.

The document gave that option in response even to a conventional attack backed by a nuclear power.

In the film, Mr Putin also said Russia did not launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine — what he called a “special military operation” — in 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea, because it was “practically unrealistic”.

“The country was not ready for such a frontal confrontation with the entire collective West,” he said.

He also claimed that Russia “sincerely sought to solve the problem of Donbas by peaceful means”.

Mr Putin said reconciliation with Ukraine is “inevitable”.

Russia and Ukraine are at odds over competing ceasefire proposals.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, in comments made public on Saturday, that Moscow’s announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire next week in Ukraine to mark Victory Day in the Second World War is an attempt to create a “soft atmosphere” ahead of Russia’s annual celebrations.

Mr Zelensky instead renewed calls for a 30-day pause in hostilities, as the US had proposed. He said the proposed ceasefire could start any time as a meaningful step toward ending the war.

Mr Putin on Monday declared the unilateral 72-hour ceasefire as the US presses for a deal to end the three-year war.

The Kremlin said the truce, ordered on “humanitarian grounds”, will run from the start of May 8 and run until the end of May 10 to mark Moscow’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 — Russia’s biggest secular holiday.

Two people were killed by Russian guided bombs on Sunday, one each in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions, local officials said.

Elsewhere, 11 people were wounded in a Russian drone attack overnight on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on Sunday. Two children were among the wounded.

Russia fired a total of 165 exploding drones and decoys overnight, Ukraine’s air force said. Of those, 69 were intercepted and 80 were lost, having probably been electronically jammed. Russia also launched two ballistic missiles.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 13 Ukrainian drones overnight.