To Nuke Or Not To Nuke? What Will Putin Do? BY LT. GEN. (RET.) WILLIAM G. BOYKIN via Prophecy News Watch
On September 30, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin declared once again that he would use “all available means” to defend Russian territory. The New York Times reported:
Mr. Putin reminded the world of President Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 77 years ago, adding, ‘By the way, they created a precedent.’ On Saturday, the strongman leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said Mr. Putin should consider using ‘low-yield nuclear weapons’ in Ukraine, becoming the first prominent Russian official to openly call for such a strike.
With this latest threat in mind, it is noteworthy that days before Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin was personally overseeing military exercises with Belarus — exercises that were blatantly nuclear in nature.
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On February 18, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko announced his willingness to join Vladimir Putin in strategic nuclear drills, a day after annual strategic drills of nuclear-capable missiles were to take place “under the supervision of Russian armed forces supreme commander-in-chief, Vladimir Putin.”
Those well-publicized nuclear exercises happened just six days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24. At the time, Putin authorized “special military operations,” and Russian forces began missile and artillery attacks, striking major Ukrainian cities including Kyiv.
The earlier military exercises in Belarus — which flaunted nuclear capabilities — was Putin’s way of psychologically preparing his enemies for the Ukraine invasion. In the weeks and months to follow, he has repeatedly employed nuclear threats and insinuations to bolster his power. Notably, he has immediately put those nuke threats to use when things aren’t going his way.
Putin has continued to use such words as “escalating” and “provocative” to describe Ukraine’s military operations, intentionally triggering fears of his own potentially deadly responses. And while many observers have implied that Putin is bluffing about nukes, or that he would not dare to use the weapons he has at his disposal — both strategic and tactical — Putin’s threats should be taken seriously.
