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Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened to use nuclear weapons in a brazen escalation of his war in Ukraine.
But the Russian president’s audacious warning is less a show of legitimate strength, and more a sign that Russia’s military is faltering, according to experts.
On Wednesday, more than seven months into the war, Putin announced a partial military mobilization in an effort to address Russia’s manpower problem amid a spate of recent Ukrainian victories. During his televised speech, the president also baselessly accused the West of threatening to use nuclear weapons and responded with an acknowledgment of Russia’s own nuclear arsenal.
“To those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for some components more modern than those of the NATO countries,” he said.
“And if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff.”
Amid mounting military losses, deteriorating troop morale, and shifting public sentiment, it makes sense why Putin would turn to his warheads, said Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations.
“The poor performance of Russia’s military on the battlefield in Ukraine has been an important reminder that any claim to great power status Russia may have is predicated almost entirely on its arsenal of nuclear weapons,” Miles said.
