“This is not a bluff”: This is how Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons. The US intelligence services are watching developments in Russia and Ukraine with concern.
Moscow – It is a scenario that experts consider unlikely, but the West is preparing for it: a Russian use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict. In the wake of nuclear threats from Kremlin boss Wladimir Putin have the United States now increased their secret service surveillance.
Like the news portal political citing US government circles, the US intelligence services and Western partners are increasingly focusing on Russian military maneuvers or communications that could indicate that Putin is ordering the use of nuclear weapons. Monitoring is difficult because most Russian planes and launchers can fire smaller nuclear weapons. “We are monitoring this very closely,” a government official told the media.
Ukraine war: Putin threatens nuclear weapons from Russia
Putin had one in a recorded speech last week Partial mobilization announced. In the In a TV speech, he also explicitly threatened weapons of mass destruction. “Of course, if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use all means at our disposal to defend Russia and our people. This is not a bluff,” said the 69-year-old. Then he added: “The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our homeland, our independence and our freedom – I emphasize again – will be guaranteed with all the means at our disposal.”
What is tricky in this context is that the Kremlin is conducting mock referendums on an annexation Russia in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Cherson and Zaporizhia. According to Russia, the “votes” are unequivocal: for joining the Russian Federation. It is expected that Putin will annex the regions within a very short time. Then the head of state would regard them as Russian territory – and would have the justification for a nuclear strike.
Experts consider the use of atomic bombs to be improbable
Western intelligence monitors Russia as well as the Ukraine therefore more from the air, from space and on the Internet, the US official said political. Commercially used satellites play an important role in analyzing Russian units on the ground that might be able to receive a nuclear order. Another focus is the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania, where, among other things, hypersonic missiles are installed.
Experts continue to see the risk of a nuclear escalation as very low. If deployed, Russia would most likely become an internationally completely isolated pariah state that no longer has any allies. Outside the West, too, the use of nuclear weapons would cause great horror – even for Putin’s most important partner China, a red line would probably have been crossed.
Putin confidante spreads fear and terror in the Ukraine war
Despite this background, Dmitry Medvedev, formerly Russia’s president and now deputy chairman of the Security Council, repeated his superior’s nuclear threats. “Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most fearsome weapon against the Ukrainian regime, which has committed a large-scale act of aggression dangerous to the existence of our state,” the hardliner wrote on Telegram.
Russia has the right for such an attack in a threat situation and the West will not react out of fear. “I believe that even in this scenario, NATO would not get directly involved in the conflict,” Medvedev added. “The demagogues across the ocean and in Europe will not die in a nuclear apocalypse”.
“Micro-nuclear bombs” for Russia last resort
Should Russia, contrary to all expectations, escalate to nuclear power, the US intelligence services are confident that the Kremlin would not risk a full-scale nuclear war with the NATO countries. The Russian army has numerous smaller tactical nuclear warheads that have significantly less yield than strategic nuclear bombs. “They will never use a strategic nuclear weapon,” the US official said political. “They will never launch an ICBM or load a bomber with megaton-class warheads,” the insider explained.
Rather, Russia as a last resort in Ukraine war Use “micro-nuclear bombs” with tens to hundreds of tons of explosive force, according to the government official. “It’s still a big bomb,” he said, but stressed that “you can focus on small tactical targets. You don’t have that much radiation.” (tvd)
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