Putin says world is living through dangerous moment and warns of risk of nuclear weapons use

​Russian President Vladimir Putin said ​on Thursday that the ‌world was ​living through a dangerous moment and that it was essential to ensure that weapons of ‌mass destruction would never be used.

Locked in a war in Ukraine which Putin said Russia had no choice to launch to safeguard its ‌own security, the Kremlin chief warned that cycles of escalation in international ‌conflict could quickly lead to dangerous scenarios. "We must realise that the moment when nothing can be changed any longer may come very quickly and unexpectedly for everyone. The ⁠logic ​of escalating, increasingly ⁠harsh retaliatory measures leads to a fatal point of no return," Putin told ⁠the Valdai Forum of international Russia experts in Moscow.

"At the heart of this ​escalation lie arrogance and overconfidence. This is a path to the ⁠brink of the abyss. All the more so today, when the arsenals of ⁠the ​world’s leading powers contain weapons capable of destroying all life or, at the very least, reducing the Earth to a catastrophic state. ⁠Can we be certain that these weapons will never be used? Well, ⁠of course not. ⁠We must bear this in mind and avoid such an outcome."