MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday that a direct clash between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would bring the world one step closer to World War III, but added that no one wanted such a scenario.
The Ukraine war has produced the most serious crisis in Moscow's ties with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Mr. Putin has often warned of the dangers of nuclear war, but he claims he has never felt the need to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated last month that he could not rule out the deployment of foot soldiers in Ukraine in the future, with many Western nations opposing it while others, particularly in Eastern Europe, showed support.
When asked by Reuters about Mr. Macron's words and the risks and possibilities of a confrontation between Russia and NATO, Mr. Putin responded: "Everything is possible in the modern world."
“It is clear to everyone, that this will be one step away from a full-scale World War Three. I think hardly anyone is interested in this,” Mr. Putin told reporters after winning the biggest ever landslide in post-Soviet Russian history.
Mr. Putin added, though, that NATO military personnel were present already in Ukraine, saying that Russia had picked up both English and French being spoken on the battlefield.
“There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they are dying there and in large numbers,” he said.
Ahead of the March 15-17 Russian election, Ukraine increased its attacks on Russia, blasting border regions and even using proxies to try to breach Russia's borders.
When asked if he thought it was essential to take over Ukraine's Kharkiv area, Mr. Putin said that if the attacks persisted, Russia would establish a buffer zone out of more Ukrainian land to safeguard Russian territory.
“I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain ‘sanitary zone’ in the territories today under the Kyiv regime,” Mr. Putin said.
He declined to provide any further information, but said such a zone would have to be large enough to prevent foreign-made arms from reaching Russian soil.
Mr. Putin stated that he wishes Mr. Macron will cease aiming to escalate the conflict in Ukraine and instead play a part in achieving peace: "It appears that France might play a role. "All is not lost yet."
“I’ve been saying it over and over again and I’ll say it again. We are for peace talks, but not just because the enemy is running out of bullets,” Mr. Putin said.
“If they really, seriously, want to build peaceful, good-neighborly relations between the two states in the long term, and not simply take a break for rearmament for 1.5–2 years.”
Mr. Putin criticized US and Western criticism of the election, which the White House claimed was not free and fair, calling US elections undemocratic and denouncing the use of state force against former President Donald Trump.
“The whole world is laughing at what is happening there,” Mr. Putin said of the United States. “It is just a catastrophe—it is not democracy—what on earth is it?”
When questioned about the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in mysterious circumstances at a Russian jail in the Arctic on February 16, Mr. Putin stated that he had merely "passed away," using Navalny's name for the first time publicly.
Mr. Putin said he agreed to exchange Navalny three days before his death. Reuters claimed in February that a prisoner exchange agreement had been reached for Navalny soon before his death.
“I said: ‘I am agreed’,” Mr. Putin said about his approval for the prisoner swap. “I had one condition—we exchange him but he never returns.”
Navalny’s widow, Yulia, has accused Mr. Putin of killing her husband. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that claim was simply wrong.
