Sarah Palin Says Alaska is Keeping Putin in Check, Shooing Russians Away

Former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin has praised the Alaskan military for keeping Russian President Vladimir Putin's army in check, during reflections on the current conflict.

Speaking on Fox News and Friends Wednesday, the former governor of Alaska said America needed to keep an eye on Russia as "they are up to no good".

Her words came as tensions remained high between the U.S. and Russia as the war in Ukraine rages on.

Fears of Russia using nuclear weapons have also remained constant as Putin has warned he is not bluffing about using them.

"Alaska, our strategic location and the military force that is there, they are on top of everything," Palin said.

"Our guys are making sure that we are keeping him in check. Vladimir Putin and his guys are trying to get in our airspace and everything else.

"It is our responders that are out there shooing them away and letting the rest of the nation know that in some respects they are up to no good and we have to keep an eye on them."

Palin was also asked whether she agreed with the U.S. supplying Ukraine with weapons in order for them to fight back the Russian invasion.

"Well, I don't like to intervene in any foreign affairs unless America's interests first and foremost are kept in mind," she said.

"There is debate over whether we have a whole lot of interest there or not.

"But yes, to protect the Ukrainian people, the innocent people who are suffering needlessly right now. Again, we have to keep Putin in check."

As the war intensifies, the world moves closer to nuclear war, according to four U.S. government and military sources.

Previously speaking to Newsweek, these officials, all working on nuclear-weapons issues, said that there is not enough being done to prevent nuclear escalation.

This comes as Putin's conventional war tactics continue to fail, pushing the leader to use alternative options.

"Russia is losing the war in every way," a senior Defense Intelligence Agency officer told Newsweek. "But we can't celebrate Ukrainian victory, not yet.

"The very conditions that Putin has told us might justify nuclear escalation are emerging. That includes threats to Russia's territorial integrity and the very survival of the state."

"Putin has now fully demonstrated that he has no regard for our values or principles," a second senior military officer said. "What would drive him to use nuclear weapons, not what would satisfy some Washington pundit, is the question we should be seized with."

On Thursday, a Russian official warned that Ukraine's accession to NATO would lead to World War 3.

"Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to a World War Three," Alexander Venediktov, the deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said in an interview with Russia's state-run news agency Tass.

The official also said that he was certain, given Kyiv's "disengagement from reality," that there are those who expect Ukraine to be accepted as a NATO member.

Ukraine's application for an accelerated entry into NATO is "rather a propaganda move," Venediktov said. He also repeated the Kremlin's rhetoric that countries in the West, by assisting Ukraine in the war, "are a direct party to the conflict".

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.