A nuclear showdown over Ukraine is being forced on NATO nations according to a new threat leveled by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, the Russian dictator used his annual State of the Union speech to level another eyebrow-raising threat to the West. If NATO uses troops in Ukraine to support the war against Russia, Russia will consider using nuclear strikes against Western Europe.
But it doesn’t end there.
The Moscow menace also said that if NATO attacked Russian territory, he would consider using targeted nuclear strikes against the Western allies.
It took a lot of deflection and gaslighting, but Putin made sure he peppered his speech with some of the most aggressive and reckless threats made in this Century. As The Washington Post describes Putin’s message:
“They must understand that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” he said, warning of “tragic consequences” if NATO forces were ever deployed to Ukraine. “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?”
Tragic consequences? It is almost as if Putin doesn’t know that shelling civilian apartments in big cities and indiscriminately hitting children and innocents doesn’t also have tragic consequences. Doesn’t he get that?
Putin is pretending that he has no agency in this conflict — something the American Right is happy to parrot when it blames Biden for the war. “All of this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons… ”
Putin knew when he attacked Ukraine that the West would rush to Ukraine’s aid to some degree, pitting nuclear powers against each other. The Russian dictator also proudly stated that the Motherland’s new hypersonic missiles, which can carry a nuclear payload, have already been used in Ukraine with conventional bombs.
Report continues below tweet:
🚨🇷🇺 Putin to Russia's Parliament: "NATO is preparing to attack Russia – any aggression will be responded to by nuclear weapons." pic.twitter.com/zhYSqhFRvu
— Terror Alarm (@Terror_Alarm) February 29, 2024
The Russian military will harden its Northwestern border now that Finland and Sweden have joined NATO. Both countries share a portion of the northern border with Russia.
Like any good propagandist, Putin accused the Western nations of doing exactly what his intelligence agencies have been doing for the last decade. He stated that the West was trying to destroy Russia “from within.” If hoping for democratic reforms and a possible overthrow of Putin is destroying Russia from within, perhaps he is right.
Putin was near gloating, according to the Post’s report, over the fact that Ukraine’s counter-offensive last summer largely failed. Additionally, things look grim with respect to American aid given that Speaker Mike Johnson seems adamantly opposed to another aid package to Ukraine.
Putin’s speech comes at a tense intersection as his biggest reform rival, Alexei Navalny, was killed (whether directly or indirectly) at a prison within the Arctic Circle last week. Moreover, French President Emmanuel Macron strongly advocated that the E.U. must form its own path forward without regard to what might happen in the United States.
Indeed, The New York Times highlighted Macron’s comments in its coverage:
“The Russian leader alluded to comments by President Emmanuel Macron of France this week raising the possibility of sending troops from NATO countries to Ukraine, a scenario the Kremlin said would lead to the ‘inevitability’ of a direct conflict between Russia and the Western alliance.”
If NATO countries sent troops to Ukraine, it would, by definition, almost surely pit NATO against Russia. No wonder Putin feels threatened. This is not a good place or moment. Ukraine and democracy must win, even if it takes Western troops.
On the other hand, a desperate and scared Putin, with the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, is impossible to predict.
Speaking of impossible to predict, the U.S. recently went through a collective shudder when certain members of Congress released information on a Russian nuclear space program. Putin rejected the assertion but did say that they’re working on new high-tech weapons.
We didn’t expect him to show us the satellite locations and blueprints. Obviously, no one in the West is giving his denials any weight.
Back to the nuclear threat.
Is this bluster? A bluff that he needs to play, regardless? Probably. There is no way to “win” a nuclear exchange. And yet, NATO cannot go forward with certainty. There is no rule stating that just because mutually assured destruction worked for 70 years, it must work again now. We came within a few flipped switches of launching nuclear weapons in the Cold War.
Throw in China, which is looking for any distraction to grab Taiwan, an always restless Iran and Israeli staredown, along with Putin’s threats to attack NATO nations with nuclear weapons, and this becomes a scary time — requiring a wise and discerning leader.
Glad we have one right now, but if Americans make the wrong decision, that could quickly change. Putin’s bluster is aimed as much at installing a friendly regime in America in the form of Donald Trump as it is at protecting his own power.
This piece is based on original reporting from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico EU.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.
