LONDON (Reuters) -Britain on Monday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin of severe consequences if Moscow uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine, saying such a step would change the nature of the conflict.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also urged Russia not to impede grain exports, and said that “increasingly desperate statements” from the Kremlin were designed to distract from its faltering war effort.
“No other country is talking about nuclear use. No country is threatening Russia or President Putin,” Cleverly told lawmakers.
“He should be clear that for the UK and our Allies, any use, at all, of nuclear weapons would change the nature of the conflict. There would be severe consequences for Russia.”
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that British navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month.
The Russian ministry also said that “British specialists” from the same unit directed Ukrainian drone attacks on ships of Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea on Saturday
Cleverly did not directly reference those comments. Without detailing what he was referring to, he said: “Now the Kremlin is resorting to peddling false claims, churning out invented stories that say more about the fractures within Russia’s government than they do about us.”
(Reporting by William James and Alistair Smout. Editing by Andrew MacAskill)
