Putin doesn’t want to start World War III because ‘West is too strong’

The Russian president has repeatedly threatened to launch nuclear weapons (Picture: Getty / AP)

Talk of an imminent third world war or nuclear armageddon is nothing but ‘loose language’, the head of the UK armed forces has said.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin insists Russia wants to avoid direct conflict with the West because the Nato alliance is far too strong.

The situation is ‘a bit more dangerous’ today but there is still an ‘enormous overmatch’ between Nato and Russia, which is ‘failing’ in Ukraine,he explained.

Admiral Radakin sought to reassure the public in an interview with Sky News marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Admiral Radakin is ‘hugely confident’ Ukraine will come out victorious

He said the West uniting to help Ukraine has echoes of the Allies’ cooperation against the Nazis during World War Two.

‘It’s a war of economies. It’s a war of logistics. It’s a war of industrial production. it’s a war of, political will,’ he continued.

‘It is all of those things for the simplicity of bringing peace back to the people of Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldier training near the front line in the Donetsk region (Picture: Anadolu)

The Chief of the Defence Staff, who was appointed in 2021, said he is ‘hugely confident’ that Ukraine will come out victorious.

‘Russia is making tactical advances on land. But you’ve got to then step back a little.

‘If you go back to March 2022, Russia had taken about 17% of Ukraine’s territory. Today it’s got 11%. So Russia is still in deficit.

‘By the end of June, Russia will have lost 500,000 people – killed and wounded.

‘We are already past 800 days for a war that Putin anticipated to be three days long. This is tough for Ukraine, but we have to maintain our support.’

Since Admiral Radakin’s interview, tensions between the West and Russia have risen over changes to how Ukraine can use military aid.

The US and several allied nations publicly backed Ukraine using western weapons to hit military targets on Russian soil in restricted circumstances.

Ukraine could previously use Nato-supplied weapons only to attack targets within Ukraine.

Putin’s threats to attack Ukraine’s allies or launch nuclear war could be empty (Picture: AP)

Russia’s defence ministry on Monday claimed Ukraine fired US-made artillery rockets in Belgorod, a region near the border with Ukraine containing key Russian military assets.

Russia claims dozens of civilians have been killed by Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod in recent months, although Ukraine denies deliberately firing at civilian targets and said some of the death were due to failures in Russia’s defence systems.

Russian strikes against Ukraine that have killed thousands of civilians and caused hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of damage.

Admiral Radakin was unable to comment on UK defence issues because of the upcoming general election.

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