Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ominous rhetoric about nuclear weapons is “propaganda,” according to NATO and Western officials who maintain that Ukraine is on a path to victory in the war.
“He and his defense minister have sent tens of thousands of their own citizens to their deaths, ill-equipped and badly led,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday. “No amount of threats and propaganda can hide the fact that Ukraine is winning this war, the international community are united, and Russia is becoming a global pariah.”
Putin signed an order for the “partial mobilization” of Russia following weeks of losses in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. While unveiling the order, he claimed, without quoting anyone directly, that Western leaders are discussing “the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction” against Russia.
“I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have,” Putin said. “In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff.”
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President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have armed Ukraine with conventional armaments, such as shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons and limited numbers of heavy artillery. But they have hesitated to provide long-range ammunition for that artillery or other armaments for fear that Putin would deem the deliveries provocative while warning Putin not to use nuclear or chemical weapons in the war.
“We have done intensive work on the kinds of responses that would be necessary, but what’s most important is if Putin thinks he’s a pariah now, he should just wait and see what would happen in that context,” a senior State Department official told reporters in New York on Tuesday. “And, frankly, it would be catastrophic not only for Ukraine and for Europe, but it’d be catastrophic for Russia if they go in that direction.”
Putin’s speech was met throughout the alliance with a mix of frustration and derision. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the “dangerous and reckless nuclear rhetoric” but characterized it as old hat for the Kremlin chief.
“It’s not new, as he has done it many times before,” Stoltenberg said at a Reuters event on Wednesday. “He knows very well that a nuclear war should never be fought and cannot be won, and it will have unprecedented consequences for Russia.”
Putin has invoked Russia’s nuclear arsenal throughout the war, including in the weeks before he launched the campaign to overthrow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Yet his repeated violations of the “long-held taboo” against raising such threats have muted their effect on Western ears.
“This is exactly what they’ve been saying since the beginning; they have to remind us that they’ve got nuclear weapons as if we’ve forgotten about that,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor told the Washington Examiner. “And yet, when Ukrainians attack into Russia, right on the border, or they attack into Russian-claimed territory, like in Crimea, nothing happens. … I mean, he’s so far — he’s been bluffing.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in his comments on the mobilization, alternated between claiming that Russian forces are defeating the Ukrainian counteroffensive and characterizing the war as a showdown with the West.
“We are really at war with the collective West, with NATO, or vice — with NATO and with the collective West,” Shoigu said, per state media. “We mean not only the weapons that are supplied in huge quantities. Naturally, we find ways to counter these weapons. We have in mind, of course, the Western systems that there exist: communication systems, information processing systems, reconnaissance systems, and satellite intelligence systems.”
U.S. and allied officials underscored the contrast between Putin’s threats and the latest developments in eastern Ukraine.
“Look, he doesn’t control the territory,” the senior State Department official said. “His forces are under stress. They are collapsing outside Kherson; they are collapsing outside Kharkiv. So this is a desperate play to try to move more exclusive weapons into a part of Ukraine where the Ukrainians are on a daily basis, destroying aircraft, ammunition. … Is that what you would do?”
Stoltenberg, the NATO civilian chief, said the threat wouldn’t deter NATO from providing additional support to Ukraine.
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“We will stay calm and continue to provide support to Ukraine,” he said. “He has made a big miscalculation. He thought he was able to take control of Ukraine within days … and now, actually, the Ukrainians have been able to liberate territory. So the speech, the partial mobilization of the armed forces of Russia just demonstrate that he miscalculated — he made a big strategic mistake, and that’s the reason why they now have to do this.”
