Boris Johnson dismisses Putin’s nuclear warning as a ‘distraction’

Boris Johnson has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he’s placing Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent on excessive alert as a “distraction” from battle his troops are going through in Ukraine

The Russian chief mentioned on Sunday that he was placing Moscow’s nuclear forces on a “particular regime of fight obligation” in response to “aggressive statements” coming from Western powers.

However in a pooled clip for broadcasters, the Prime Minister instructed his actions had been extra to do with the truth that his forces had been assembly with “extra resistance than the Kremlin had bargained for”.

Mr Johnson additionally solid doubt on attainable negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations to attempt to resolve the disaster.

President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed the 2 sides may meet on the Ukraine-Belarus border having initially rejected a suggestion of talks in Belarus.

Nevertheless Mr Johnson mentioned he had seen nothing to recommend that Mr Putin was real in his provide.

“There’s nothing I’ve seen to date in his behaviour that leads me to suppose that he may probably be honest,” he mentioned.

Earlier Russian tv footage confirmed Mr Putin assembly together with his defence minister and the chief of the overall workers, and instructing them to place the nuclear deterrent on a “particular regime of fight obligation”.

“Western international locations aren’t solely taking unfriendly actions towards our nation within the financial sphere, however prime officers from main Nato members made aggressive statements relating to our nation,” he mentioned.

However on a day when the anticipated assault on Kyiv once more did not materialise and the Ukrainians claimed to have pushed Russian forces overseas’s second metropolis Kharkiv, Mr Johnson mentioned his phrases had been “a distraction from the truth of what’s happening”.

“That is an harmless people who find themselves going through a very unprovoked act of aggression towards them, and what’s really taking place is that they’re preventing again maybe with extra impact, with extra resistance, than the Kremlin had bargained for,” he mentioned.

“You’ll be able to see a number of the logistical difficulties that the Russian forces are experiencing.

“The Russian defence ministry have themselves conceded that they’re having casualties.

“It is a disastrous misbegotten enterprise by President Putin.”