- Putin announces a partial mobilization
- Warns the West about ‘nuclear blackmail’
- He says Russia will use all means to defend itself
- This is not a bluff, says Putin
- Russia moves to annex areas of Ukrainian territory
LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia’s first mobilization since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not making a bluff when he said he would be willing to use nuclear weapons. to defend Russia.
In the biggest escalation of the Ukraine war since Moscow’s February 24 invasion, Putin explicitly raised the specter of a nuclear conflict, approved a plan to annex a part of Ukraine the size of of Hungary and called up 300,000 reservists.
“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all available means to protect Russia and our people – this is not a bluff,” Putin said in a televised address to the nation.
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Citing NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders, Putin said the West was planning to destroy his country, engaging in “nuclear blackmail,” allegedly discussing the potential use of nuclear weapons against Moscow, and accused the United States, the European Union and Great Britain to encourage Ukraine. to boost military operations in Russia itself.
“In its aggressive anti-Russian policy, the West has crossed all lines,” Putin said. “This is not a bluff. And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the vane can turn and point back at them.”
The speech, which followed a critical defeat on the Russian battlefield in northeastern Ukraine, fueled speculation about the course of the war, the future of the 69-year-old Kremlin chief himself, and showed that Putin was doubling down on what he calls his “special military operation.” in Ukraine
In essence, Putin is betting that by raising the risk of a direct confrontation between the US-led NATO military alliance and Russia, a step towards World War III, the West will blink at its support for Ukraine, which it has not demonstrated sign of having done so far.
Putin’s war in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of people, unleashed an inflationary wave on the global economy and set off the worst confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many feared nuclear war was imminent.
MOBILIZATION
Putin signed a decree on the partial mobilization of Russia’s reserves, arguing that Russian soldiers were effectively facing the full force of the “collective West” which has been supplying Kyiv’s forces with advanced weapons, training and intelligence
Speaking shortly after Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia would call up an additional 300,000 of the roughly 25 million potential fighters at Moscow’s disposal.
The mobilization, the first since the Soviet Union fought Nazi Germany in World War II, begins immediately.
Such a move is risky for Putin, who has so far tried to preserve a semblance of peace in the capital and other major cities where support for the war is lower than in the provinces.
Since Boris Yeltsin handed Putin the nuclear briefcase on the last day of 1999, his top priority has been to restore at least some of the great power status that Moscow lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Putin has repeatedly criticized the United States for pushing NATO’s eastward expansion, particularly its courtship of ex-Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia, which Russia views as part of its own sphere of influence, a idea that both nations reject.
Putin said senior government officials from several unnamed “leading” NATO countries had discussed the potential use of nuclear weapons against Russia.
He also accused the West of risking a “nuclear catastrophe” by allowing Ukraine to bomb the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, which Kyiv has denied.
ANNEXATION
Putin gave his explicit support for referendums to be held in the coming days in areas of Ukraine controlled by Russian troops, the first step towards the formal annexation of a part of Ukraine the size of Hungary.
The self-styled Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republics (LPR), which Putin recognized as independent just before the invasion, and Russian-installed officials in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions have called for votes.
“We will support the decision on its future, which will be made by the majority of residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporizhia and Kherson,” Putin said.
“We cannot, we have no moral right to deliver people close to the executioners, we cannot fail to respond to their sincere desire to determine their own fate.”
This paves the way for the formal annexation of approximately 15% of Ukrainian territory.
The West and Ukraine have condemned the referendum plan as an illegal sham and vowed never to accept its results. French President Emmanuel Macron called the plans “a travesty”. Kyiv has denied persecuting ethnic Russians or Russian-speakers.
But by formally annexing Ukrainian territories, Putin is giving himself the possible pretext to use nuclear weapons from Russia’s arsenal, the largest in the world.
Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows for the use of these weapons if weapons of mass destruction are used against it or if the Russian state faces an existential threat from conventional weapons.
“It is in our historical tradition, in the destiny of our people, to stop those who are fighting for world domination, who threaten the dismemberment and enslavement of our Motherland, our Motherland,” Putin said.
“We will do it now, and that’s how it will be,” Putin said. “I believe in your support.”
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Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn
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