Ukraine’s military chief warns of ‘direct threat’ of Russian nuclear weapons

Ukraine’s top military leader warned Wednesday that the “direct threat” of Russia’s nuclear weapons remains a major factor in its decision-making amid conflict in the country.

Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, and Lt. Gen. Mykhailo Zabrodskyi said in an article published in state news outlet Ukrinform that the possibility of world powers engaging in “limited” nuclear warfare cannot be ruled out.

“It is hard to imagine that even nuclear strikes will allow Russia to break Ukraine’s will to resist,” they said. “But the threat that will emerge for the whole of Europe cannot be ignored.”

Zaluzhnyi and Zabrodskyi said any Russian attempt at taking steps toward using nuclear weapons should be preempted by world powers “employing the entire arsenal of means” at their disposal. 

“After all, starting from this moment, the Russian Federation will become not only a threat to the peaceful coexistence of Ukraine, its neighbors, and a number of European countries but also a truly global-scale terrorist state,” they said.

The military members said Russia has shown neglect of global nuclear security in a conventional war through its actions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They pointed to Russia setting up a military base at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and deploying heavy artillery on its premises as evidence. 

Experts and world leaders have expressed concerns that shelling around the plant could lead to a nuclear disaster in the area. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the plant last week to examine it, and the agency’s leader announced on Friday that two would remain at the plant permanently to continue to inspect it. 

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling around the plant, which is the largest in Europe. Russia captured the plant earlier in the war. 

Zaluzhnyi and Zabrodskyi said the other factor that contributes to Ukraine’s decisionmaking is the country’s access to significant resources and funds.

“Ukraine’s effort to survive an onslaught of a superpower requires, and will continue to require, significant material resources and funds,” they said.

They added that many populations worldwide have trouble imagining World War II-style combat operations in real life despite media coverage of the conflict.

“Air raid sirens, missile attacks and bombardments of peaceful settlements, flows of refugees and prisoners of war, river crossings operations, and tank breakthrough attempts – for most people across the world, all of this remains only a ghostly history of the last century’s two world wars,” the leaders said.

But these effects of the war have become an “integral” part of everyday life for Ukrainians, they said.