Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday instructed the Federal Security Service (FSB) to strengthen protective measures for the country’s energy and transport infrastructure, citing Ukrainian attacks that he claimed were carried out with the assistance of Western intelligence services. At the same time, he warned that “those who push us to the limit will regret it.”
He stated that Moscow’s adversaries likely understand what the outcome of any attack against Russia or Russian forces involving a “nuclear component” could be. His remarks came amid concerns raised by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) about what it described as a possible transfer of nuclear weapons technology elements to Ukraine.
Shortly before, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Russia would inform the United States about what it claims are Ukrainian attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.
Earlier in the day, the SVR alleged that Britain and France are planning to supply Ukraine with nuclear weapons. Ushakov, as reported by Russian news agencies, said this would affect Russia’s position in negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Speaking on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the war’s outbreak, Putin said that Russia’s adversaries “have failed to inflict a strategic defeat on the battlefield” and are now resorting, as he put it, to “individual and mass terrorism.”
“Bombing cities, sabotaging infrastructure, attempting to assassinate state and military officials — all of this fits into that logic,” he told FSB officials. He added that there is an “absolute need, from their side, to defeat Russia,” warning that if Moscow is “pushed to the limit,” its adversaries “will regret it.”
During the war, Ukraine has repeatedly carried out attacks on Russian fuel depots, refineries, and ports, while Moscow has also accused Kyiv of a series of assassinations of senior military officers. In his televised remarks, Putin suggested that Russian energy pipelines in the Black Sea could become targets.
The Russian president ordered “the strengthening of counterterrorism protection for energy and transport infrastructure and public gathering sites, the provision of maximum security coverage for critical facilities, and, where necessary, the implementation of additional security measures.”
He also accused Ukraine of attempting, with the help of Western intelligence services, to undermine the peace process between the two countries, including, as he claimed, threats against Russian energy pipelines.
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