The Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, on Friday said that it was possible Russian President Vladimir Putin would be willing to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine in the face of its determined resistance against the Russian invasion.
As per Korsunsky, “We will fight until the end; we are not going to live in a Russia managed state. There is no reason to believe that he (Vladimir Putin) can threaten us, as he thinks, to the state that we will overthrow our government and we will embrace Russia after what they have done to us. No way. Therefore he may use nuclear weapons.”
Back in February, Putin ordered his military command to put Russia’s deterrence forces, including nuclear arms, on high alert, citing what he called aggressive statements by NATO leaders and Western economic sanctions against Moscow.
As per the reports, President Putin has not directly threatened to use nuclear arms. But while announcing the military invasion of Ukraine last month, he said after referring to Russia’s powerful nuclear arsenal: “Whoever tries to hinder us… should know that Russia’s response will be immediate. And it will lead you to face such consequences that you have never encountered in your history.”
Korsunsky further added that Ukraine was relying on its allies to help in avoiding any kind of escalation.
He stated, “We are trying to work with our partners, major nuclear powers who know how to monitor the situation on nuclear weapons, and which can help us not to allow this to happen.”
At the same time, Moscow calls its action in Ukraine a “special military operation. It says it wants to “demilitarise” and “denazify” its pro-Western neighbour and prevent Kyiv from joining NATO.