Washington urges Moscow to end nuclear threat
The United States has urged Russia to end its rhetoric about the nuclear threat in the war in Ukraine.
“We have made it clear to the Russians, publicly and privately, that they should stop talking about nuclear weapons,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with CBS News that aired Sunday. “It is very important that Moscow hears us and knows that the consequences would be terrible. And we made that very clear,” the Foreign Minister stressed. “Any use of nuclear weapons would of course have catastrophic consequences for the country using them, but also for many others. »
A little earlier, the White House National Security Advisor had warned of the “catastrophic” consequences of Moscow using nuclear weapons. “We have the opportunity to speak directly at a high level [aux Russes]telling them clearly what our message is and hearing theirs,” Jake Sullivan said on NBC.
“It’s happened a lot in the last few months, it’s happened even in the last few days,” he said, without specifying the type of communication channels used to “protect them.” »
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin alluded to the atomic bomb in a televised speech, saying he was ready to use “all the means” in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting to “destroy” Russia. “This is not a bluff,” assured the Russian President.
Russian military doctrine permits the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield to force an enemy to retreat. But Russian military doctrine also envisages the possibility of resorting to nuclear strikes when attacking areas considered Moscow-owned, which could soon apply to Ukraine’s regions, which have been hosting referenda on annexation since Friday.
These elections, dubbed by Kyiv and its Western allies as a “simulacra” with no legal value, will take place in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which form the Donbass mine basin, in eastern Ukraine, as well as in the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhia, in the south of the country.