During a virtual meeting of the Council of Civil Society and Human Rights on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to backtrack on his previous threat to use nuclear weapons, saying he will not resort to a first-use policy “under any circumstances.”
“We have not gone crazy, we are aware of what nuclear weapons are. We have these means, and they are in a more advanced and more modern form than any other nuclear country,” Putin asserted, emphasising that these are a “natural deterrent, not provoking to the expansion of conflicts.”
Vladimir Putin said that the risk for the use of nuclear weapons has increased but Russia will not launch a first strike.
— Alex Plitsas 🇺🇸 (@alexplitsas) December 7, 2022
However, Ukraine doesn’t have nuclear weapons because they gave them back to Russia in 1994 in return for a guarantee that Russia would never invade.
Though he admitted that “such a threat is growing,” he said the possibility of a nuclear attack on Russian territory is “very limited.”
“We consider weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, it is all tuned around the so-called retaliatory strike, that is, when we are struck, we strike back,” Putin underscored.
He also revealed that Russia is not “transferring our nuclear weapons to anyone, but, of course, we will protect our allies with all the means at our disposal, if necessary.” In a sharp rebuke of the United States (US), Putin stressed, “We do not maintain our own nuclear weapons, including tactical ones, on the territory of other countries,” unlike Washington, which has a large nuclear arsenal on European territory.
Nevertheless, Russia has often threatened Ukraine with nuclear warfare in recent times. As far back as last December, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had raised alarms over North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) weapons deployment, warning that Russia is ready to deploy its intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe in retaliation.
In April, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest aides, Dmitry Medvedev, threatened to deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles to the Kaliningrad exclave located between Poland and Lithuania if Sweden and Finland joined NATO.
Similarly, in September, Russian State Duma Committee chair on International Affairs and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Leonid Slutsky called Ukraine’s draft of legally-binding international security guarantees to defend itself against Russia an “escalation” and threatened the Western countries with nuclear warfare.
A month later, Moscow further escalated the nuclear threat and warned the West of “disastrous consequences” after Ukrainian troops made significant inroads in southern Kherson. In fact, last month, the United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence Intelligence claimed that Russia has deployed Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles to Belarus’ Machulishchi Airfield in a “message to the West.”
5/ Putin’s remarks support @TheStudyofWar's assessment that while Russian officials may engage in forms of nuclear saber-rattling as part of an information operation meant to undermine support for Ukraine, Russian officials have no intention of using them on the battlefield.
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) December 8, 2022
In his remarks on Wednesday, Putin acknowledged for the first time that Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine could be “a long process ” but remarked that the annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia was a “significant result.” He also noted that the Sea of Azov has become the inland sea of the country.
“And the most important thing is the people who live in all these territories. The results of the referendum showed that people want to be in Russia and consider themselves part of this world, part of this space of our common culture, traditions and language,” Putin highlighted, further stating once again that “Russia could be the only real guarantor of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine within its current borders.”
3/ He is enlarging the corner he has painted himself into with his #Ukraine invasion. Currently, he has minimal strategic room for manoeuvre. By ruling out nuclear first use, he further reduces any potential for NATO direct intervention in the war.
— Mick Ryan, AM (@WarintheFuture) December 7, 2022
The Russian president also refuted all rumours of a second wave of partial mobilisation, saying that it “does not make sense,” as of the 300,000 people mobilised, only 150,000 are performing functions related to the territorial defence troops or undergoing additional training, while only 77,000 are “directly in combat units.” In fact, the other 150,000 mobilised personnel are not part of the Ukraine war at all, and are the “so-called combat reserve,” he claimed.
Putin acknowledged that there have been cases of desertion in the Russian forces during the Ukraine war, saying, “There is no need to turn a blind eye to this.”
“Any normal person who finds himself in a situation where bullets are flying or shells are falling cannot, in a certain way, even at a physiological level, not react to what is happening. But after a certain period of adaptation, the guys fight brilliantly,” he stressed.
Putin celebrates taking control of the Sea of Azov – a task, he says, that even eluded Peter the Great.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) December 7, 2022
That's the first time Putin has mused about the tsar since he compared himself to the "gatherer of Russian lands." in June. Imperial thinking seems to be guinding him still
Meanwhile, Putin condemned the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Council of Europe, and other Western human rights organisations who “suddenly “saw the light” and shamelessly began to demonstrate their cynical bias” only after the Ukraine war began. He mentioned that despite bringing the humanitarian crisis in the Donbas region since 2014, these organisations did not take up the matter seriously. In fact, he said they not only considered the people of Donbas as “second-class people” but they also “consider Russia a second-class country that simply has no right to exist at all.”
“That’s the whole problem and the whole trouble. We have been dealing with this for a long time, throughout our history, and today it is most clearly manifested,” Putin noted.