Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Putin had merely been answering a journalist’s questions on the subject and restating the already well known circumstances in which Russia would theoretically be forced to use nuclear weapons.
Peskov also drew attention to the fact that Putin had said in the same interview that the idea of using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine had never crossed his mind.
Now, I’ll grant you, I have ZERO knowledge of Russian and so can only work from translation, BUT…
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-warns-west-risk-nuclear-war-says-moscow-can-strike-western-targets-2024-02-29/
“(Western nations) must realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don’t they get that?!”
Seems unambiguous…
He meant new, clear weapons.
People (including you) seem to forget the context for why the Cold War was a cold war.
Notice: ‘…we also have…’
He is referring at the precarious nuclear effective capabilities Russia have compared to Nato countries. Ofc western headliners will write NUCLEAR WAR IMMINENT.