By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Russian President Vladimir Putin has in his latest remark, said that Moscow had “no need” to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a u-turn from his claims the previous weeks of using “all means” available to protect land Moscow.
Putin, in a speech Thursday, downplayed the possibility of a nuclear conflict and denied that Russia had threatened to use nuclear weapons. He said that Moscow was only responding to “nuclear blackmail” from the West.
In earlier weeks, however, Putin and other high-level Kremlin officials had expressed Russia’s readiness to use all means at their disposal, including nuclear weapons, to protect the territorial integrity of Russia, which was understood to include the illegally annexed territories of Ukraine.
The US has however expressed doubt over Moscow’s claim. President Joe Biden wondered why Putin keeps talking about nuclear weapons if he has no intention of deploying it in Kyiv.
“If he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it? Why is he talking about the ability to use a tactical nuclear weapon?” Biden said during an interview with NewsNation. “He’s been very dangerous in how he’s approached this.”
Ukraine continues to suffer losses from Russian attacks on its critical energy infrastructure, with blackouts in many major cities.
Local authorities have urged residents to limit their electricity use and will schedule pre-planned blackouts to prevent uncontrolled power outages.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin continues to allege that Ukraine is preparing to use a radioactive “dirty bomb” on its own territory and blame it on Russia, a claim that Ukrainian and Western leaders denounce as baseless lies and a pretext to escalate the conflict.
At Kyiv’s request, a team from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency will be visiting Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities, which Ukrainian officials say will disprove Russia’s accusations.
