Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Wednesday a rise in nuclear tension, although he insisted he would not be the first to use such a weapon in the conflict with Ukraine.
In a televised meeting with the Russian Human Rights Council, Putin admitted that the conflict in Ukraine could be prolonged.
Since the start of the invasion, on February 24, in Ukraine, senior Russian officials have raised the possibility of resorting to nuclear weapons if the Russian State is threatened with its territorial integrity, which includes the annexed regions of Ukraine.
These statements aroused fears and accusations around the world. But Putin’s statement seemed to put those concerns to rest, at least as far as an apocalypse unleashed by Russia is concerned.
“We don’t go crazy, we know what nuclear weapons are,” Putin declared in a televised meeting with the Russian Human Rights Council.
“We consider weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear weapon, as a means of defense. (Using it) is based on what we call a ‘reprisal attack’: if they attack us, we respond,” he said.
However, he added that “the threat of a nuclear war is growing” and blamed the Americans and Europeans, who give Ukraine strong financial and military support.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to respond directly to Putin, but pointed out that “any talk about nuclear weapons is absolutely irresponsible”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the risk of using nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine has diminished thanks to international pressure on Russia. “Something has changed for now: Russia has ceased its threats to use a nuclear weapon,” Scholz said in an interview with the German media group Funke and the French newspaper “Ouest-France”.
The chancellor added that “the priority is for Russia to end the war and withdraw its troops from Ukraine, but it is true that later we will need to know how to guarantee security in Europe”.
– Long process –
The Russian president accused the UN and other international organizations, as well as the Western media, of taking a biased position against Russia in the case and of propagating “blatant lies”.
Putin acknowledged that the conflict lasts longer than he thought, but claimed that Russia had achieved “significant results” in those nine months, in reference to Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
In recent weeks, Russian troops have suffered, however, several setbacks in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, being forced to withdraw from the city of Kherson.
The invasion of the former Soviet republic was justified by the Kremlin as an attempt to defend the Russian-speaking population and break the alliance between Kiev and the West, which it considers a strategic threat.
The European Union proposed on Wednesday to adopt sanctions against the armed forces and three other banks in Russia, as part of a new package of restrictive measures imposed due to the war in Ukraine.
– ‘Ecocide’ –
Putin said he had already sent 150,000 reservists to Ukraine, half of the 300,000 deployed in September. Among those recruits, about 77,000 are on the front lines, he detailed. For the time being, he has ruled out a new mobilization of reservists.
The bombing continued on Wednesday, with a Russian assault on the town of Kurakhove, near Donetsk, where most of the fighting is currently concentrated.
“A market, a bus station, gas stations and residential buildings were targeted,” said Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, adding that they killed 10 civilians.
The day before, in Donetsk, under the control of pro-Russian separatists since 2014, six civilians were killed in Ukrainian attacks, according to local officials.
Ahead of its repeated setbacks, the Kremlin decided in October to focus its bombing on Ukrainian power plants, depriving the population of electricity, water and heat as winter approaches.
The Ukrainian fauna has also paid a heavy price, with the deaths of thousands of dolphins in the Black Sea in recent months.
Zelensky, who was named Person of the Year 2022 by Time magazine, said his country was “gathering evidence of these crimes” to “hold Russia accountable” for this “ecocide”.
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