Russian radicals are demanding that Putin strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons – Reuters
27 June 09:15
Pro-war radicals are calling on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to abandon U.S.-mediated diplomacy and escalate the conflict in Ukraine in response to a series of painful strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russia, Reuters reports, as cited by "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to the “hawks,” as the agency notes, Washington has broken its promise to bring about an end to the war on terms favorable to the Kremlin. Calls for tough measures are nothing new, Reuters emphasizes: pro-war voices have previously demanded a new mobilization, strikes on European military factories, and even the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
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But these demands, as Reuters writes, have once again intensified and become more acute following a series of long-range strikes by the Ukrainian military that hit Crimea and Moscow, triggering a severe gasoline crisis in the country and forcing Crimean authorities to declare a state of emergency on the peninsula in the midst of the tourist season.
“What else has to happen before we start? War means victory at any cost. <…> Why aren’t we using the nuclear weapons that our ancestors developed and stockpiled <…> precisely for this purpose?” — Konstantin Malofeev, owner of the “Tsargrad” TV channel, railed last week after drones struck the Moscow oil refinery.
Sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin may be taking such rhetoric in stride: Moscow still wants to keep the door open for a possible diplomatic solution.
So far, the Kremlin has not heeded calls from radicals to walk away from the negotiations, although senior officials acknowledge the talks’ failure and accuse the U.S. of violating agreements allegedly reached by Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska.
Among them is Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who did not rule out that the Anchorage meeting was “designed to buy time to arm” Ukraine. In response, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that no agreements were reached with Putin in Alaska. “There was only a proposal, but no agreement was reached,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is intensifying its strikes: according to WSJ estimates, 8,800 drones have attacked Russian territory and occupied Crimea—twice as many as in January and nearly four times as many as in the same month last year. And in June, the number of confirmed long-range strikes reached a record 32, according to Jane’s estimates.
In addition to attacks on oil refineries, which caused oil refining in Russia to plummet to 20-year lows, Crimea has faced the threat of isolation; in addition to gasoline shortages, local residents are complaining about the disappearance of basic goods—from salt to cooking oil.
Russia can do little to counter attempts to isolate Crimea. Military expert Ruslan Pukhov: “Ukraine has significantly weakened the Russian armed forces’ air defense system in Crimea, after which it launched systematic attacks on vulnerable targets—logistics, fuel, and energy infrastructure.”
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