A close ally of Vladimir Putin has claimed the Kremlin is considering the possibility of launching a nuclear strike on Paris. The sensational warning was voiced by the deputy chairman of the Russian Parliament, Pyotr Tolstoy, who told French news broadcaster BFMTV: “We are calculating.”
The politician, who previously worked for a number of French news outlets as a Moscow correspondent, went on to claim that a nuclear warhead fired from Russia could reach France’s capital in “a little more than two minutes”.
Russia’s priority, Mr Tolstoy also said, is ensuring its security, a need he claimed is spurring from the NATO countries, including France, possibly considering “placing missiles around Russian borders”.
This is far from the first nuclear threat issued by one of Putin’s allies not just since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, but even since the start of 2024.
Just last week, Putin himself reiterated Russia was “ready” for a nuclear confrontation should one of the red lines in the nuclear doctrine embraced by the country in 2010 be crossed.
According to the country’s stated security doctrine, threats to the existence of the Russian state, its sovereignty or independence could prompt a devastating reaction from the Kremlin.
Tolstoy lashed out at France in his interview just days after French President Emmanuel Macron refused once again to rule out “operations on the ground” in Ukraine, adding his country was preparing for “all scenarios”.
He told Le Parisien: “Perhaps at some point – I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative – it will be necessary to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces.”
Tolstoy pledged Russia would “kill all French soldiers” deployed to the Ukrainian battlefield.
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that sending NATO boots to fight against Russian troops would prompt a reaction from Moscow.
On February 27, after the summit in Paris, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element.
“We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability [of a direct conflict between Russian and NATO].”
Macron first raised the idea of combat troops from the Western military alliance going to Ukraine in late February, when he held a summit on the war with several EU leaders as well as officials from the UK, US and Canada.
