Since early November, senior Kremlin officials and the Russian high command have softened their rhetoric about Russia’s use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine, according to data American Institute for the Study of War (ISW). This change shows that Russian leaders are aware of the huge costs and small operational benefits of such an attack, the analysis emphasizes.
Putin and Kremlin officials stepped up thinly veiled but unspoken threats to use nuclear weapons after Russia’s illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions was announced on September 30, ISW recalls in its latest report. The newspaper added that such rhetoric was likely intended to force Ukraine into negotiations, intimidate the West into reducing its support for Kyiv, and divert attention from Russia’s front-line failures and mobilization problems.
“The Kremlin’s nuclear threats have not undermined the political and social will in Ukraine to continue resisting the Russian invasion, emphasize from ISW. — The Kremlin also failed to intimidate the countries that support Ukraine.”.
According to the US media, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan recently held confidential talks with the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev and the Russian President’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. The purpose of these contacts was to reduce the risk of using nuclear weapons. China, whose leader Xi Jinping has called for backing off threats to use such weapons, may also have played a role in pressuring the Kremlin to tone down its rhetoric on nuclear weapons, US analysts said.
Threats to use nuclear weapons still appear in Russian propaganda TV programs, but this is part of the chauvinistic rhetoric aimed at Russians themselves to show the strength of the state, despite defeats in the war with Ukraine, ISW assesses.
We will recall that Great Britain is analyzing the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons.
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