EU’s top diplomat warns Russian army will be ‘annihilated’ if Putin nukes Ukraine

BRUSSELS — EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warns Moscow that its forces would be “annihilated” by the West’s military response if Russian President Vladimir Putin uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

“Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither,” Borrell says at the opening of a Diplomatic Academy in Brussels.

“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 will be annihilated.”

Fears that Moscow could use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine have grown after Putin issued veiled threats as he staged the annexation of four occupied regions in the face of losses on the battlefield.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has warned Russia it faces “severe consequences” if it launches a nuclear attack on its pro-Western neighbor.