‘Weapon of the apocalypse’: Vladimir Putin lines up his nuclear options
Vladimir Putin is set to demonstrate his willingness to use weapons of mass destruction with a nuclear test on Ukraine’s borders, with a direct strike on Kyiv’s military not ruled out.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to demonstrate his willingness to use weapons of mass destruction with a nuclear test on Ukraine’s borders, NATO is believed to have warned its members.
The Kremlin has been signalling its readiness for a significant escalation as Russia loses ground on the battlefield.
Fears over Putin’s earlier hints that he might resort to such tactics heightened yesterday with claims that a train operated by the secretive nuclear division was destined for Ukraine.
Konrad Muzyka, a Poland-based defence analyst, said the train, spotted in central Russia, was linked to the 12th main directorate of the Russian ministry of defence and that it was “responsible for nuclear munitions, their storage, maintenance, transport, and issuance to units”.
A senior defence source, however, said that a more likely demonstration of Putin’s readiness to use nuclear weapons could come in the Black Sea.
Although they believed such a show of force would be more likely, they said it was “not impossible” that Putin could fire a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. If he chose to do so, he faced a significant risk. “They could misfire and accidentally hit a Russian city close to the Ukrainian border such as Belgorod,” the source said.
NATO is said to have sent an intelligence report to its members and allies alerting them to Russia’s plans to test its nuclear-capable torpedo drone, Poseidon, dubbed the “weapon of the apocalypse”.
The submarine K-329 Belgorod, which is carrying Poseidon, is believed to be headed to the Arctic. According to La Repubblica newspaper, it is about to be tested in the area of the Kara Sea.
Russia acknowledged yesterday that Ukrainian forces had broken through its defences in the southern Kherson region. Igor Konashenkov, a defence ministry spokesman, told reporters that the Ukrainians had seized territory thanks to “superior tank units” and had “penetrated into the depths of our defence”.
The Moscow-based news outlet RBC reported that the commander of Russia’s western military district, Colonel-General Alexander Zhuravlyov, had been dismissed, and would be replaced by Lieutenant-General Roman Berdnikov.
Kherson is one of the four regions illegally annexed by Moscow last week after a hasty sham referendum orchestrated by the Kremlin. Putin’s land grab has threatened to push the conflict to a dangerous new level, raising the prospect of a nuclear strike masquerading as a defence of Russian territory.
Ukraine has also pushed to regain territory in the Luhansk region and claimed full control of Russia’s eastern logistics hub, Lyman, in Donetsk.
Professor Andrew Futter, a University of Leicester academic and nuclear weapons expert, said the nuclear submarine could perform various tactical functions and was far more than just a nuclear delivery platform. He suggested that, as in the case of the train, Russia was trying to send a warning to the West to stop meddling in the conflict.
James Rogers, director of research at the Council on Geostrategy, said he would not rule out a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine’s advancing forces, no matter how unlikely that seemed.
“Given the quality of the decision-making in the Kremlin at the moment, nothing should be discounted. The Russians are getting desperate, but it would be a dramatic escalation and one that countries such as India and even China would surely condemn,” he said.
How the West would respond to a nuclear strike is unclear. Rogers said extensive cyberattacks could be a possibility, as would “economic strangulation, and further support for Ukraine’s government and armed forces”.
Futter said that Nato allies responding to a strike on Ukraine would “open up Pandora’s box”, adding: “If the West uses nuclear weapons in response you really don’t know what comes next.”
Speaking at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, the former commander of US Central Command, said: “The threat of nuclear escalation is very high. We do ourselves no good if we ignore that.”
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, sought to downplay a call from Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen strongman, to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Kadyrov claimed he was sending three of his sons to join the fight after urging Moscow to take “more drastic measures … and use low-yield nuclear weapons”.
Peskov said: “The heads of regions have the right to express their point of view. Even at difficult moments, emotions should still be excluded from any assessments.”
The Times
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