How serious is the Kremlin about its nuclear threats? The Ukrainian President Zelenskyj considers it dangerous just to talk about it. At the same time, he puts his “pre-emptive strike” demand into perspective. Despite Biden’s “Armageddon” statement, the White House currently sees no acute threat.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has toned down his controversial statements about a “preemptive strike” against Russia in a television interview. “You have to use pre-emptive kicks, not attacks. We are not terrorists, we are not attacking any other territory,” said Zelenskyy in Kyiv in a BBC interview in English. Even after all the suffering of the war, Ukraine is still not ready “to kill people like the Russians do.”
Zelenskyi caused a stir on Thursday with calls for the decisive prevention of a Russian use of nuclear weapons. During an appearance he said: “What should NATO do? Make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons. But what is important – and that’s why I’m turning to the world community like before February 24 – is that these are preventive strikes, so that they know what will come to them when they use it.”
A little later, one of his spokesmen emphasized that the Ukrainian president had been misunderstood: Zelenskyy only wanted to say that before February 24 – the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine – preventive measures were necessary to prevent the war. The Kremlin in Moscow nevertheless sharply condemned the statements as a “call for the start of the third world war”.
Referring to a possible Russian use of nuclear weapons, Zelenskyy said in the BBC interview that Russia is preparing its society: “They are not ready to do it, to use them. But they are starting to communicate. They don’t know whether they’re going to use them or not. But I think it’s dangerous to even talk about it.” Moscow has already taken a first step by occupying the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia. “In such cases, the world can implement a package of sanctions and do whatever it takes to get them out of the nuclear power plant,” Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, the White House has reiterated its warning of serious consequences if Russia uses nuclear weapons. However, the US government is not assuming that a nuclear strike is imminent. “We have seen no reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear stance,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday aboard Air Force One. “We also have no evidence that Russia is immediately preparing to use nuclear weapons.”
The day before, US President Biden had said that after the threats from the Kremlin, the danger of a nuclear confrontation with catastrophic consequences was greater than it had been in 60 years: “Since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have not faced the possibility of Armageddon.” When asked whether Biden’s “Armageddon” statement was based on new US intelligence information, Jean-Pierre replied “no”.
