Putin Ally Says Zelenskyy's 'Preventive Strikes' Comment 'Evidence Of The Threats' Posed By Kyiv

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, one of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comments suggesting that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should launch preventive strikes on Moscow confirmed that Kremlin’s decision to invade Ukraine was justified. 

What Happened: "By doing so, (he) essentially presented the world with further evidence of the threats posed by the Kyiv regime," Lavrov said, and added, "This is why a special military operation was launched to neutralize them," reported Reuters. 

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This comes after Zelenskyy, in a discussion with an Australian think-tank on Thursday, said he believed NATO’s strikes were necessary to preclude any use of nuclear weapons, without sharing more details. 

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, also denounced the Ukrainian president’s comments as "an appeal to start yet another world war with unpredictable, monstrous consequences."

Meanwhile, Kyiv clarified that when Zelenskyy said “preventive strikes,” he was referring to imposing sanctions on Russia that were necessary to preclude any use of nuclear weapons.

"Colleagues, you have gone a little too far with your nuclear hysteria and now you hear nuclear strikes even where there are none," Zelenskyy's spokesperson Serhii Nykyforov wrote on Facebook.

Zelenskyy “spoke about the period until Feb. 24," wrote Nykyforov. It was the day when Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine.

He added, “Then it was necessary to apply preventive measures” to stop Russia from starting the war. “Let me remind you that the only measures that were about then were preventive sanctions,” Nykyforov said. 

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