'This is not a bluff': Putin goes nuclear

President Putin warned today that Russia would use nuclear weapons to defend its territory while also announcing the partial mobilisation of Russia’s reserve forces in an escalation of the war in Ukraine.

President Putin warned today that Russia would use nuclear weapons to defend its territory while also announcing the partial mobilisation of Russia’s reserve forces in an escalation of the war in Ukraine.

“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we use all available means to protect our people — this is not a bluff,” Putin said in a bellicose speech that aired live on state television this morning.

In his first national address since he sent troops into Ukraine in February, Putin also accused western countries of plotting to destroy Russia, saying: “The aggressive anti-Russian policy of the West has crossed all lines.” He added: “Those who blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the wind can turn in the other direction.”

The Russian leader said that the move to call up reservists was necessary to “protect our homeland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity” and to “liberate” Ukrainians from what he described as the “Nazi regime” in Kyiv. “I believe in your support,” Putin said at the end of his address.

Putin added that Russia’s “main aim” of “freeing” the people of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine “remains without change”.

His comments came after Moscow-installed officials in the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya regions of Ukraine said they would stage referendums in the coming days on splitting away from Ukraine and joining Russia.

In the recorded clip, Putin declared: “Citizens of Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and other areas [will be] free from the Nazi regime. The aim of the West is still to weaken and destroy [us] — they are openly saying that.”

Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, said after Putin’s speech that 300,000 reservists would be conscripted into the armed forces. He also said that 5,937 Russian soliders had been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war. Western intelligence agencies say the true figure is likely to be much higher.

In an interview with Russian state television, Shoigu said that students and those who served as conscripts would not be called up, and clarified that the majority of reserves would not be drafted.

In yet another indication that Russia is preparing for a major new push in the seven-month war, MPs yesterday approved tough news laws against desertion, surrender and looting by its troops. They also voted for ten-year prison terms for soldiers refusing to fight.

Opposition activists within Russia have called for nationwide protests against mobilisation this evening. “Thousands of Russian men — our fathers, brother and husbands — will be thrown into the grinder of war,” wrote Vesna, an opposition group. “What will they die for? For what will their wives and children shed tears? For Putin’s palace? The war is no longer ‘somewhere over there’. It has come to our country, to our homes, for our loved ones.”

If Russia annexes the Ukrainian regions, then Kyiv’s forces would suddenly find themselves fighting with western-provided weapons on territory that the Kremlin considers its own. Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows the use of weapons of mass destruction if the country faces an existential threat from conventional weapons. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s national security council, said yesterday that Russia would use “any means” to defend “liberated” areas of Ukraine.

The British defence ministry said that the referendums were likely sparked by a lightning counteroffensive by Ukraine that forced Russia’s army into a humiliating retreat in the Kharkiv region. “This urgency is likely driven by fears of imminent Ukrainian attack and an expectation of greater security after formally becoming part of Russia,” the ministry said.

The Foreign Office minister Gillian Keegan said that Putin’s declaration foreshadowed a “worrying escalation” of the war in Ukraine.

She added that the threats should be taken “seriously” as Ukraine begins to make advances, taking back land previously held by Russia.

The Chichester MP said: “It’s something that we should take very seriously because, you know, we’re not in control. I’m not sure he’s in control either really. I mean, this is obviously an escalation and, of course, for the Russian people now they will be conscripted into this war.”

Asked for her message to Ukrainians, Keegan told Sky News: “We’re there, we’re by your side, we will help as much as we can.”

Putin’s speech was widely expected yesterday evening but it was postponed for unknown reasons. There was speculation that he would announced martial law, which could mean the closure of Russia’s borders. Putin did not mention this today, however.