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Russian President Vladimir Putin warns that he won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons to ward off Ukraine’s attempt to reclaim control of Moscow-occupied areas that the Kremlin is about to annex.
While the West dismisses that as a scare tactic, a top Putin lieutenant upped the ante by boldly saying the U.S. and its NATO allies wouldn’t dare strike Russia, even if it used nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
A look at the nuclear threats over Ukraine:
WHAT DROVE PUTIN TO MAKE THE THREATS?
A Ukrainian counteroffensive forced Russian troops to retreat rapidly from broad swaths of the northeastern Kharkiv region this month and handed Moscow its most humiliating defeat since the opening weeks of the war.
The Kremlin then speeded up its orchestrated “referendums” in occupied areas, asking if they want to come under Moscow’s rule. The voting, denounced as illegal and rigged by Kyiv and the West even before it began, predictably gave Russia the result it wanted.
Moscow says that after incorporating the regions, it will view a Ukrainian attack on them as an act of aggression and will respond accordingly.
Putin raised the stakes further by mobilization of reservists for the war, aiming to call up at least 300,000. But the effort is proving widely unpopular, with tens of thousands fleeing Russia and fueling protests and violence that threaten to destabilize the country.
The mobilization won’t provide a quick fix for the military, however. Running out of conventional options, Putin appears to be increasingly erratic and tempted to reach for nuclear weapons to avoid a defeat that could threaten his 22-year rule.
He has repeatedly talked about using them with a terrifying ease. He chillingly has said Moscow’s enemies would die before even having time to repent their sins, and once acknowledged that nuclear war would be catastrophic, “but why would we need a world without Russia?”
WHAT’S IN THE NUCLEAR ARSENALS?
Since the Cold War era. Russia and the United States have maintained a nuclear parity, together accounting for about 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenals.
According to data exchanged earlier this year under the New START arms reduction treaty between Moscow and Washington, Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads for its strategic forces and the U.
