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In response to
"The Kremlin’s mobilization effort includes forcing Ukrainians to fight their own country."
by
crash davis
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Zelensky urges allies to step up pressure on Putin amid ‘nuclear blackmail.’
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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine warned on Sunday that President Vladimir V. Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons in Russia’s war against Ukraine was no bluff as he urged the United States and other Western allies to intensify the pressure on the Russian leader as his troops falter on the battlefield.
“I don’t think he’s bluffing,” Mr. Zelensky said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “He wants to scare the whole world. These are the first steps of his nuclear blackmail.”
Speaking through a translator, Mr. Zelensky added: “I think the world is determined in containing this threat. We need to keep putting pressure on him and not allow him to continue.”
Biden administration officials have expressed concern that Mr. Putin could detonate a tactical nuclear weapon on Ukrainian territory, or perhaps in a demonstration blast over the Black Sea or the Arctic Ocean. Administration officials said on Sunday that while they took the threat seriously, there has been no evidence of Russia moving those weapons or preparing such a strike.
Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, echoed previous warnings — both public and private — that the president and his top aides have made in response to Mr. Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling.
“We have communicated directly, privately, at very high levels to the Kremlin, that any use of nuclear weapons will be met with catastrophic consequences for Russia, that the United States and our allies will respond decisively,” said Mr. Sullivan, also speaking on the CBS program. “We have been clear and specific about what that will entail.”
The sham referendums being carried out in territories that are largely under Russian military control add to the complexity of the situation. The voting, which ends early this week, is widely believed to be a pretext for Russia to annex those territories.
Mr. Zelensky said the rushed voting would open the door for Mr. Putin to claim Kyiv’s defensive war was an attack on Russian territory. Annexation by Moscow, Mr. Zelensky reiterated, would scuttle any fleeting hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.
Mr. Zelensky said the referendums were a sign of Russia’s recent failures on the battlefield, where more advanced weaponry has helped swing the momentum in Ukraine’s favor after months of grinding warfare.
While he thanked the United States for the $15 billion in weapons and equipment Washington has committed so far, Mr. Zelensky also renewed his call for Western allies to provide his military with tanks for its offensives in the east and the south, and additional air defenses to protect Ukrainian schools, hospitals, residences and other civilian infrastructure from Russian missile and artillery barrages.
“If the U.S. will be able to show its leadership, and we’ll be able to get the tanks, then Germany and other European countries will follow,” Mr. Zelensky said.
Pentagon officials said sending American battle tanks to Ukraine was “on the table” but was more likely months or even years down the road, given the long lead time to train Ukrainian soldiers on how to operate and maintain those complex systems.
Ukrainian commanders counter that their troops were able to master complicated weapons like the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, in a matter of weeks — much faster than American trainers had anticipated. The system has become a defining weapon in the recent months of the war, enabling Ukraine to attack thousands of ammunition depots, command posts and radars, causing havoc with the Kremlin’s ability to conduct the war.
— Eric Schmitt
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