BRUSSELS, October 13. /TASS/: The West will give a powerful response to Russia’s allegedly possible use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine, but that response won’t be nuclear, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Thursday.
"It has to be clear that any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer. Not a nuclear answer, but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian army would be annihilated," he said in a speech at the European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges.
Borrell brought up the statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia wasn’t bluffing when saying it would use all means at its disposal to defend its territory. The EU foreign policy chief said Western countries also aren’t bluffing when they warn about the consequences in the event that nuclear arms are used in Ukraine.
He said the world needs the conflict to stop. Borrell said the EU "should continue supporting Ukraine and we have to continue looking for diplomatic solutions when possible. At the time being there are not."
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on October 6 that Washington and other Western capitals may be interested in escalating the situation around the use of nuclear weapons in order to subsequently blame Moscow. According to the diplomat, that’s part of Washington's destructive policy to ensure global dominance, without regard to the danger of provoking a direct armed clash of the largest nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences.
