Putin declares ‘all of Ukraine is ours’ and threatens nuclear strike

The Russian president is not planning on backing down

These latest comments came in an interview the Russian leader conducted with Sky News Arabia, during which he voiced his thoughts on many matters.

He insisted that Russia will not give up any occupied territory as part of peace negotiations with Ukraine.

Putin made reference to referendums that Russian officials had held in 2022 in four annexed regions of Ukraine and Crimea.

With all four regions voting to join Russia, Putin said negotiations must recognise "the will of the people who live in certain territories".

These referendums were described as "shams" at the time by many Ukraine's allies.

Putin said in his interview that "the will of the people is what [we] call democracy.

He added that he hopes Ukraine will be "guided by national interests" rather than the "interests of its sponsors" in peace negotiations.

Those sponsors, he said, "are not interested in ending the conflict, but in using Ukraine for their own selfish political purposes".

Yesterday (20 June), the Russian president told business leaders in St Petersburg: "I have said many times that I consider the Russian and Ukrainian people to be one nation.

"In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours."

The Russian leader once again alluded to his nuclear arsenal when talking about Ukraine and promised "catastrophic" consequences is Kyiv used a dirty bomb against Russia.

The dirty bomb topic has been a trending one in recent days after Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told the UK's defence secretary, Ben Wallace, in a phone call that he was "concerned about possible provocations by Kyiv involving the use of a dirty bomb".

He has expressed this fear to other countries who, along with the UK, described the comments as "transparently false allegations".

A dirty bomb in effectively conventional explosives combined with radioactive material.

Speaking more about this matter, Putin said: "This would be a colossal mistake on the part of those whom we call neo-Nazis on the territory of today's Ukraine.

"It could be their last mistake. We always respond and respond in kind. Therefore, our response will be very tough.

"Ukraine deserves a better fate than being an instrument in the geopolitical struggle of those who strive for confrontation with the Russian Federation."