Vladimir Putin says Russia invading Poland or Latvia is 'out of the question' as World War III would 'bring all humanity to brink of destruction' - but insists military defeat for his troops in Ukraine is now 'impossible'

Vladimir Putin played down fears of World War Three last night by claiming the prospect of Russia invading Poland or Latvia was ‘out of the question’.

The President said the Kremlin ‘simply don’t have any interest’ in expanding the war in Ukraine and suggested such a conflict would ‘bring all humanity to the brink of destruction’.

Putin made the comments in an interview with US talk show host Tucker Carlson, his first with an Western journalist since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

He also claimed military defeat for his troops was ‘impossible’ in a remarkable two-hour sit down in which he also said Boris Johnson scuppered a deal to end the fighting 18 months ago.

Asked if he could imagine a scenario where his troops would be sent to Poland, Putin told Carlson: ‘Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia. We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else.

‘Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest. It is absolutely out of the question.’

He told US talk show host Tucker Carlson in an interview today that they ‘simply don’t have any interest’ in expanding the war in Ukraine

Russian soldiers load a rocket into a launcher on a mission at an undisclosed location in Ukraine in a photo released yesterday

Vladimir Putin outrageously claimed last night that he was read to sign a deal to end the war with Ukraine 18 months ago but Boris Johnson scuppered the deal

The despot made the jaw-dropping accusations during the much anticipated two-hour long sit-down interview with former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson

Fears of WWIII were raised when Admiral Rob Bauer, the chairman of NATO’s Military Committee urged both civilians and governments to prepare for cataclysmic conflicts and the chilling prospect of being conscripted.

‘We have to realise it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we [NATO forces] have the plans, that’s why we are preparing for a conflict with Russia,’ Bauer told reporters last month after a meeting of NATO defence chiefs in Brussels.

‘But the discussion is much wider. It is also the industrial base and also the people that have to understand they play a role.’

In a stark warning, he said civilians must be ready for a conflict in the next 20 years that would require wholesale change in their lives.

READ MORE: Moment Tucker Carlson heaps praise on Moscow where he has been for a week as Kremlin confirms ex-Fox News host has already met and interviewed Putin 

This comes as Putin outrageously claimed last night that he was ready to sign a deal to end the war with Ukraine a year and a half ago but Mr Johnson scuppered the deal.

He claimed the former Prime Minister ‘dissuaded’ the leader of Ukraine’s leading party from signing the document and said it ‘was better to fight Russia’ in the interview with Carlson.

The Kremlin said Putin agreed to the interview because the approach of the former Fox News host ‘differed from the one-sided reporting of the Ukraine conflict’.

The President was allowed to drone on unchallenged for long chunks of time as he gave a rambling history lesson about Russia dating back to the year 800.

He claimed that Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Ukraine’s ruing party, put his ‘preliminary signature’ on the deal after direct negotiations with Russians in Istanbul.

Mr Putin said: ‘But then he [Arakhamia] publicly stated to the whole world, we were ready to sign this document but Mr Johnson, then the Prime Minister, came and dissuaded us from doing this, saying it was better to fight Russia.

‘They would give everything needed for us to return what was lost during the clashes with Russia. And we agreed with this proposal’.

Mr Putin went on: ‘And the fact that they obey the demand or persuasion of Mr Johnson, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, seems ridiculous.

‘And it’s very sad to me because, as Mr Arakhamia put it, we could have stopped those hostilities with war a year and a half ago already. But the British persuaded us and we refused this. Where is Mr Johnson now? And the war continues.’

He accused the US of telling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to refuse to negotiate any deal and said he wanted to agree a settlement.

‘And we made it [a deal],’ he said.

‘We prepared the huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He had fixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it. He put his signature and then he himself said, we were ready to sign it, and the war would have been over long ago. Eighteen months ago.

Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, left, and Davyd Arakhamia pose for media during talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul, in March 2022

Ukrainian Parliament member Arakhamia (C front) during Russian-Ukrainian talks in the Gomel Region of Belarus in February 2022

Putin claims they had prepared a huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation (Pictured: Delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Belarus)

Zelenskyy and Commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces Colonel General Oleksandr Syrski, right, look at a map during their visit to the front line city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region in November 2023

‘However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talk to us out of it and we missed that chance. Well, you missed it. You made a mistake. Let them get back to that.’

The Kremlin has previously suggested Mr Johnson’s trip to Kyiv in April 2022 as an intervention to derail any peace deal and would have seen Russia withdrawing its troops.

The deal would have seen Ukraine abandoning its plans to join Nato and accepting neutrality.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, alleged late last year that Mr Johnson ‘banned’ Kyiv from signing a peace agreement.

She made the remarks on the back of Mr Arakhamia telling Ukrainian media that Mr Johnson had advised them to ‘not sign anything’ with Russia ‘and let’s just fight’.

Mr Johnson told The Times last month: ‘This is nothing but total nonsense and Russian propaganda.’

Those denials were backed up by Mr Arakhamia who accused Moscow of distorting his words and saying it would be impossible for any western allies to order Zelensky what to do.

He told The Times: ‘No peace proposals or peace agreement were possible in February or March 2022. Russia entered Ukraine solely for the sake of seizing territories, killing citizens and overthrowing a democratic government.’

Throughout the interview Putin was bizarrely twisting his left foot reigniting speculation about the dictator’s health.

The Kremlin leader has been dogged by claims of declining health since long before he ordered his invasion of Ukraine

But in the 18 months since, rumours have only intensified as the war appears to have taken its toll.

Other footage from meetings and appearances has shown Putin gripping a table for support, tapping his feet seemingly uncontrollably, and looking unsteady as he walked.

In September Putin appeared to be struggling with a twitching leg in a meeting with Kim Jong Un.

As the leaders sat down at a Russian space base for talks, video footage shows Putin repeatedly raising and lowering his left foot as his knee collapses inward – a motion he repeats in the Carlson interview.

Putin later adjusted his position in the chair but his left foot appeared to continue erratically flexing as the North Korean leader told him he was fighting a ‘sacred war’ with the West and their two countries would together battle with ‘imperialism’.

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