MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said in comments broadcast on Sunday that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen, and that he hoped it would not arise.

In a fragment of an upcoming interview with Russian state television published on Telegram, Putin said that Russia has the strength and the means to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a “logical conclusion.”

Responding to a question from a state television reporter about Ukrainian strikes on Russia, Putin said: “There has been no need to use those (nuclear) weapons … and I hope they will not be required.”

He said: “We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires.”

Putin in February 2022 ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine, in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” against its neighbor.

Though Russian troops were repelled from Kyiv, Moscow’s forces currently control around 20 percent of Ukraine, including much of the south and east.

Putin has in recent weeks expressed willingness to negotiate a peace settlement, as US President Donald Trump has said he wants to end the conflict via diplomatic means.

However, last week, Trump said that he doubted Putin wants to end the war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were “very close to a deal.”

Trump made the remarks after briefly huddling with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral, their first encounter since a noisy White House clash in which the US leader had berated his Ukrainian counterpart for “gambling with millions of lives” and suggested his actions could trigger World War III.

Fear of nuclear escalation has been a factor in US officials’ thinking since Russia invaded Ukraine. Former CIA director William Burns has said there was a real risk in late 2022 that Russia could use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.