UKRAINE: Putin orders nuclear forces into combat mode, gives reason for imminent strike

President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian nuclear forces to get into combat mode following what he described as aggressive statements by leading NATO powers.

The order has raised the threat that the tensions could boil over into nuclear warfare.

Putin also cited hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself.

Apart from strings of sanctions against Putin, his foreign affairs minister, the aviation industry, and others, NATO has also expunged Russian financial institution from SWIFT—the Society for  World Interbank Financial Telecommunications.

So Russia can transact financially with the outside world.

“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said in televised comments n Sunday.

The Russian leader this week threatened to retaliate harshly against any nations that intervened directly in the conflict in Ukraine, and he specifically raised the specter of his country’s status as a nuclear power.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations responded to the news from Moscow while appearing on a Sunday news program.

“President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “And we have to continue to condemn his actions in the most strong, strongest possible way.”