Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a severe warning to the rest of the world, particularly Ukraine, just moments before his country’s invasion of that country was set to begin. According to the president, interfering countries will face penalties “bigger than any you have encountered in history,” according to the president. The Russian president also boasted about Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which he put on high alert a few days later. Russian nuclear weapons capabilities have evolved significantly since the Cold War.
Amid Russia’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Moscow has appeared to back down from its warning to use nuclear weapons if necessary.
Russia backs off threat of using nuclear force amid Ukraine warhttps://t.co/o3x1nMrOvV
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 29, 2022
Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president’s leading spokesperson, told PBS that “no one is thinking about deploying — about even the thought of using a nuclear bomb.”
To his credit, Peskov has changed his tone since he and other Kremlin officials issued veiled threats earlier this month.
Peskov claimed that “any consequence of the operation is not a basis for using a nuclear bomb.” Nuclear weapons may and will be used only when there is a threat to the state’s existence in our nation, according to a security concept that is “quite clearly stated.”
According to the spokesperson, Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine will be “finished,” but he contrasted the existing fighting and the prospect of nuclear Armageddon.
Let’s keep these two things separate, he said. There is no connection between the existence of the state and Ukraine’s special military operation.
In an attempt to deter the international community from meddling in his campaign, Putin threatened “consequences you had never seen in history” when he initially announced his invasion last month.
“He was fairly aggressive in expressing that – do not intervene,” Peskov replied when asked whether he believed Putin was threatening nuclear war.
Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine and the subsequent fighting around two of Ukraine’s nuclear plants have heightened world anxieties about a nuclear attack.
Even though Ukraine is still in charge of the Chernobyl nuclear accident site, Russian forces have taken control of a village nearby.
Earlier this week, workers issued an alert about Russian forces’ use of an area known as the “Red Forest” to generate radioactive dust clouds.
Reuters initially reported that the troops had no radiation protection.
Six of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors are located in the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear safety watchdog, is on its way to the war-torn country because of the ongoing threat of a nuclear mishap.
If merely 100 nuclear detonations may cause a global nuclear famine, what would happen if the United States and Russia exchanged all of their warheads? It’s encouraging that Russia is reconsidering the use of nuclear weapons in a conflict.