Unfortunately, we have moved a bit closer to the use of nuclear weapons.
Putin is losing badly on the battlefield. It seems his Army is in full retreat in the Doneske with the Ukrainians making one stunning advance after another. Luanske has now been liberated and is fully in UK hands.
Understand that nuclear weapons do not win battles. They do not hold ground nor defeat an enemy. at least Tactical weapons do not. What they do, do, is punish an enemy in pursuit. Especially if that enemy has consolidated and is momentarily bunched up.
Putin has annexed these territories which Ukrainian forces are presently retaking. Putin has taken all the legal steps he needs to according to his constitution to deploy these weapons. Russian nukes can be used to defend the Russian homeland should an enemy set foot upon them. Since these territories have been annexed, in Putin's mind, they are Mother Russia.
We are on the cusp of the possible deployment of the bomb. There would be no reason to think anyone would respond with a counter-nuclear strike, as that would possibly escalate the situation. But once the nuclear genie is let loose; can it ever be bottled back up?
These are dangerous times, unprecedented times.
Former CIA Moscow chief of station on Putin's nuclear war threat
Michael Morell speaks with Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former CIA Moscow chief of station and William J. Perry Distinguished Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, about Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats — and how American policymakers should respond. Mowatt-Larssen stresses that Western leaders must take Putin's threats seriously. His assessment is that we're now peaking in global nuclear risk, reaching a point not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago. He also explains why, as Ukrainians are winning on the battlefield, they are not ready to sit at the negotiating table.
Putin's nuclear threat: "It would be terribly irresponsible, Michael, if anyone, any Western leader thought of these threats as being bluster or saber-rattling or empty. I'm quite certain that all the Western leadership, based on at least the people I know and things I hear, are taking the threats very seriously. There's no military reason for Vladimir Putin to do this. In other words, he can't use tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield to win a war he can't win with an army. Nuclear weapons don't take territories. They don't hold territories. It is a way to try to strike back at an enemy you can't stop with an asymmetric weapon of mass destruction. That's the danger."
Putin's hold on power: "No person, no leader in the world of an authoritarian country, is ever completely safe from other authoritarian minded people in that system. That's one of the dangers of running an autocracy, that there's always someone from within who might decide you're more trouble than you're worth. And that might even apply to Vladimir Putin at some point in this war. And so he's certainly aware of it. That's one reason he has no succession plan. It's a reason why he limits those who are around him to a very, very small select of totally trusted people because he's aware he wants to minimize the possibilities that he could be deposed in any way."
Why Ukraine isn't negotiating: "Zelensky also understands that if the West tries to pressure Ukraine to go to the negotiating table, to settle on some basis of where we are right now, it's capitulation for Ukraine. And he's in no mood to do that. They fought too hard. They've lost too much. So that means that he's likely to continue to defy Putin by continuing his attacks and intensifying the battle on the ground. So that puts Vladimir Putin in a very bad position because if that's successful, his options are also dwindling."
