Asked directly whether he was confident such weapons would not be used, the Russian president answered in the negative. He had opened by warning of a scenario with "fatal consequences" and noting that several countries have weapons "capable of destroying all living things" in their arsenals.
Putin compared nuclear weapons to a rifle hanging on a theater stage that, by the rules of the genre, is bound to fire. "If we want to live — and everyone wants to live — let us live together in friendship," he said, adding that further escalation would leave "no school textbooks and no one to study from them."
On the war in Ukraine, Putin repeated that Russia supposedly "did not start" it, casting the invasion as a response to the actions of NATO and Kyiv. By his account, the West spent years encouraging "aggressive nationalism and Russophobia" in Ukraine, while "radicals in Kyiv" were pushed toward a coup.
He claimed Russian troops had seized 3.5 times more territory in the past month than in the previous one, and that Russia controls 89% of the Donetsk region. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russia holds 81% of the Donbas. Days earlier, Kyiv said its forces had retaken 176 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory during three seasons of the "Vivaldi" counteroffensive.
Asked about his readiness to halt the fighting, Putin said he would like to do so "as fast as possible" through peace talks — on condition that Russia receives the entire Donbas. He said Russia needs "to create conditions not for a truce, but for a lasting peace," along with security guarantees. He also mentioned that Ukraine had struck during State Duma elections, but that Moscow was ready for talks "taking national interests into account."
ISW has counted at least 15 occasions since February 2022 on which Putin named deadlines for seizing the Donetsk region, the earliest being May 9, 2022. The think tank notes that Russia now intends to take the Donbas by the end of 2026, but at the current pace of advance it will not be able to do so before 2032.
Putin also called for drafting a new convention on the conduct of hostilities that accounts for the development of artificial intelligence. He cited the case of Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov, who in 1983 did not order a nuclear strike although protocol required him to do so. In Putin's view, AI would have acted differently.
On possible strikes against military facilities in Europe, Putin said Russia would "not necessarily" do so, but would "track threats." Moscow regards Western countries' participation in strikes on Russian territory as a direct threat.
This year's Valdai Club meeting was moved from Sochi to the Moscow region, where, according to the Financial Times, Russia has concentrated more air defense assets. The decision was taken over security concerns amid intensified Ukrainian attacks, the newspaper reports, citing four sources. Two of them added that the move was made at the insistence of Putin's security service.