Use of nuclear weapons inevitable if World War 3 breaks out, warns former Russian general

London: A retired Russian Lieutenant-General has warned that the Cold War was comfortable compared to the ongoing conflict and has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not accept defeat” if there was to be a World War 3.

Evgeny Buzhinskiy was quoted as saying to Channel 4 News - “I think it’s worse than the Cold War. In the Cold War time I was in the armed forces and I was quite comfortable. There were definite duels and definite red lines, everybody knew what to do."

He also said that in the Cold War there were no threats, no sanctions, no isolation, there was just ideological confrontation. 

When asked whether rising tensions could lead to a third world war, Buzhinskiy told the news channel - “Of course, you cannot control military confrontation between Russia and the United States."

He then went on to say - "Russia cannot wage a war against the US. For years, economically it cannot. In the general purpose forces, we are a bit lagging behind the United States. Russia will no accept any kind of defeat, so the involvement of nuclear weapons is inevitable.”

Meanwhile, Russia said on April 16, 2018, that it still hopes for dialogue with Washington despite US-led strikes on Moscow's ally Syria. "We hope that, when our American colleagues solve their internal issues, some kind of communication will begin despite all the damage to (our) bilateral relations currently imposed by Washington," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said, AFP reported.

He had added that there were no current discussions between the two countries on a possible summit between US President Donald Trump and Putin.

The US, Britain and France have carried out attacks on alleged chemical weapons facilities, in response to what they say was a toxic gas attack by the Russia-backed Assad regime.

Moscow has said the US-led action was aimed at overthrowing Assad and keeping Russia's influence in check.

The Western strikes have led to tensions between Washington and Moscow unseen since the Cold War. Putin denounced them as "an act of aggression against a sovereign state which is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism".

Russia on Saturday failed to win UN backing for a condemnation of the Western strikes.

(With AFP inputs)