More than a month and a half after the threats of this type made by Vladimir Putin at the start of the war, Ukrainians and Americans assured this Friday that they would not “take lightly” the risk of “tactical” or “weak” nuclear strikes power”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is warning this Friday of the risk that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, cornered by his military setbacks in Ukraine, may resort to a tactical nuclear weapon. And to affirm that “the whole world” must be “worried”.
The head of American foreign intelligence, William Burns, already felt on Thursday that it was not necessary “take lightly the threat posed by the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons” Where “low power” by President Putin if he were to “fall into despair” faced with the failures of his army.
Volodymyr Zelensky clarified to CNN that this concern was about “nuclear weapons” Where “chemical weapons”. “They can do it”, “for them, people’s lives are worth nothing”, he hammered in this interview which will be broadcast in its entirety on Sunday but of which the American channel has posted an extract. The Ukrainian President launched: “Let’s not be worried, let’s be prepared.” To understand “the whole world”.
The threat is all the more palpable the day after the sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva, which would have been sunk by two Ukrainian missiles, according to a senior Pentagon official on Friday, stressing that it is “a big blow” for Russia. “We are perfectly aware that we will not be forgiven” the attack of Moskvasaid Natalia Goumenyuk, spokeswoman for the military command of the southern region of Ukraine, during a briefing on Friday.
The concern also echoes the fact that the Kremlin, soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, spoke of putting its nuclear forces on alert. “We haven’t really seen any concrete signs like military deployments or actions that could heighten our concerns,” however nuanced the head of the CIA on Thursday.
Russia has many tactical nuclear weapons, of a lower power than the Hiroshima bomb, in accordance with its doctrine “escalation-de-escalation” which would consist of first using a low-power nuclear weapon to regain the advantage in the event of a conventional conflict with the West. “Using a tactical nuclear weapon against a conventional army of an unarmed state [de l’arme nucléaire] would fall completely outside the scope of official Russian disarmament and non-proliferation policy,” indicated at the end of February at Release a French source, who then maintained that “it will not happen”.