Russia threatens to destroy all NATO countries in "half an hour"

A close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia could destroy all NATO countries in "half an hour", in the event of a nuclear war.

"The strongman's goal is to defeat the enemy West and wipe Ukraine off the map," Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Kremlin's space agency, Roscosmos, was quoted by the British newspaper "Daily Mail" as saying.

The 58-year-old Rogozin said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was waging "a war against us... they did not declare it, but it became clear to everyone."

He continued, "In the event of a nuclear war, we will destroy NATO countries within half an hour," then returned to saying that "we must not allow this, because the consequences of exchanging nuclear strikes will affect our planet."

"Therefore, we will have to defeat this most powerful enemy, economically and militarily, by conventional armed means," he added.

Rogozin's comments came after the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Bill Burns, announced on Saturday that the agency had no indication that Russia was preparing to use tactical nuclear weapons.

Burns said during a press conference: "We do not see at the present stage, as the intelligence service, concrete evidence to show that Russia is preparing to deploy, or even the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons."

Russia had put its nuclear deterrent forces on high alert shortly after the Russian president sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.

Putin also made implicit threats indicating his willingness to deploy tactical nuclear weapons.

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