The Russian president’s speech capped a surreal week in St Petersburg
Published June 8, 2024
Ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been engaged in nuclear sabre-rattling, dropping a series of not-so-subtle hints that trying to defeat a nuclear power like Russia could have disastrous consequences for those who try.
Today President Putin claimed that Russia wouldn’t need to use a nuclear weapon to achieve victory in Ukraine.
He was being interviewed at a panel discussion at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum: the annual event often described as ‘Russia’s Davos’.
There are few occasions when Mr Putin looks dovish compared to the person asking him the questions.
But when the person asking the questions is Sergei Karaganov it would be hard not to. Mr Karaganov is a hawkish Russian foreign policy expert. Last year he called for a pre-emptive nuclear strike. Today he suggested holding a “nuclear pistol” to the temple of the West over Ukraine.
President Putin wasn’t so extreme in his language.
But he is no dove.
The Kremlin leader said he did not rule out changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine: the document which sets out the conditions under which Russia would use nuclear weapons.
“This doctrine is a living tool and we are carefully watching what is happening in the world around us and do not exclude making changes to this doctrine. This is also related to the testing of nuclear weapons.”
And he delivered a warning to those European countries who’ve been supporting Ukraine: Russia’s has “many more [tactical nuclear weapons] than there are on the European continent, even if the United States brings theirs over.”
“Europe does not have a developed [early warning system],” he added. “In this sense they are more or less defenceless.”
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SOURCE: www.bbc.com
RELATED: Putin Is Running Out of Time to Achieve Breakthrough in Ukraine
- Russia made limited progress with Ukraine short on weapons
- Ukraine halts Russian attack as billions in arms start flowing
Published June 8, 2024
For months, Russia’s army has made only limited gains on the battlefield against Ukrainian troops starved of weapons and ammunition. That’s a growing challenge for President Vladimir Putin as his military’s advantage starts to erode.
With Kyiv now taking delivery of billions of dollars in fresh arms from its US and European allies, the window for a Russian breakthrough is narrowing even as it continues to fire missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities including energy infrastructure.
A Russian attempt to open a new front in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region already appears bogged down without achieving Putin’s goal of creating a buffer zone along the border. Ukraine claims to be inflicting “very high losses” on Russian troops in battles around the town of Vovchansk.
Russian forces advanced only marginally since taking the strategic eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka in February at the cost of huge casualties in months of fighting. They’ve been trying for weeks to take the key settlement of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia’s strategy of attrition to exhaust Ukraine’s forces is “very expensive and bloody for the Russian army itself,” said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. “It can lead to excessive exhaustion of forces on the Russian side, which in turn, gives Ukrainians a chance to counter attack.”
