Threat to use nuclear arms is not a bluff, stresses Putin
KYIV: President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first wartime mobilisation since World War Two on Wednesday, shocking his countrymen with what Western countries described as an act of desperation in the face of a losing war.
Putin made the announcement in a televised address in which he also announced moves to annex swathes of Ukrainian territory and threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia, declaring: “It’s not a bluff.”
Flights out of Russia quickly sold out. Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny called for mass demonstrations against the mobilisation. Russians said some people were already receiving call-up notices, and police were barring men from leaving one city in the south.
A monitoring group said more than 100 people were arrested in protests in the hours ater Putin’s speech.
In a country that counts millions of former conscripts as reservists, Putin’s “partial mobilisation” decree gave no clue as to who would be called up.
Defencesecretarysergeishoigusaid300,000 people would be mobilised from a pool of 25 million. Contracts of professional troops would be extended indefinitely.
Putin also effectively announced plans to annex four Ukrainian provinces, saying Moscow would assist with referendums on joining Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to Russia, and implement the results.
Offering no evidence, Putin accused officials in Nato states of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Russia. They should know that “the weathervane can turn towards them”, he said. Russia “also has various means of destruction”.
“When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff.”
Biden, in a speech to world leaders at the UN General Assembly responded: “Again, just today, president Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe, in a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the non-proliferation regime.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he thought Putin would be unlikely to use nuclear weapons, but that the threat itself showed why it was vital to stand up to him.
“Tomorrow Putin can say: `Apart from Ukraine, we also want a part of Poland, otherwise we will use nuclear weapons.’ We cannot make these compromises,” Zelenskiy told Germany’s Bild newspaper.
Calling a mobilisation is possibly the riskiest domestic political move of Putin’s two decades in power, and follows months in which the Kremlin had promised it would do no such thing.
The war has so far appeared to enjoy popular support in a country where independent media have all been shut down and all public criticism of the “special military operation” is banned.
But for many ordinary Russians, especially in the urban middle classes, the prospect of being sent to fight would be the first hint of the war affecting them personally.
“It is clear that the criminal war is geting worse, deepening, and Putin is trying to involve as many people as possible in this,” jailed opposition leader Navalny said in a video message recorded and published by his lawyers. “He wants to smear hundreds of thousands of people in this blood.”
Moments ater Putin’s announcement, recruitment offices had already handed packs of conscription papers to homeowners’ associations, said St Petersburg human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov, who advises clients on conscription. Medics in Moscow were “receiving summonses from recruitment offices en masse to come and receive mobilisation orders”, he told Reuters.
In a note seen by Reuters, one major company told staff: “We already have employees who have received summonses for tomorrow. Everyone should be aware that it is possible they will be summoned in the morning and be unable to work the next day.
“Keep managers informed so we don’t lose track of each other,” it said.
On the Moscow metro, men could be seen studying call-up papers.
“You always feel worried at moments like these. Because you have a wife and kids and you think about it,” one resident told Reuters.
In the city of Kursk, closer to Ukraine, a woman married to a soldier said: “They’re not leting people out of Kursk. There are police cordons everywhere, checking each car. If a man is driving, they inspect; if it’s a woman, they ask her to open the luggage compartment. If the man is from Kursk, they turn you back.”
By 1530 GMT, Russian police had detained more than 100 people across Russia for protesting against the mobilisation, the independent protest monitoring group OVD-INFO said.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Biden said Russia had violated the UN charter by invading a neighbouring state.
“This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple, and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people,” the American president said. “Wherever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe .... That should make your blood run cold.”
US President Joe Biden declared at the United Nations on Wednesday that Russia has “shamelessly violated the core tenets” of the international body with its war in Ukraine as he summoned nations around the globe to stand firm in backing the Ukrainian resistance.
Delivering a forceful condemnation of Russia’s seven-month invasion, Biden said reports of Russian abuses against civilians and its efforts to erase Ukraine and its culture “should make your blood run cold.”
He referenced President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Wednesday that he had ordered a partial mobilisation of reservists, a deeply unpopular step that sparked protests in Russia.
And Putin’s new nuclear threats against Europe showed “reckless disregard” for Russia’s responsibilities as a signer of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Biden said.
He also criticised Russia for scheduling “sham referenda” this week in territory it has forcibly seized in Ukraine.
“A permanent member of the UN Security Council invaded its neighbour, atempted to erase
Condemning Russia’s 7-month invasion, Biden said reports of Russian abuses against civilians and its efforts to erase Ukraine and its culture ‘should make your blood run cold’
a sovereign state from the map. Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the UN charter,” he told his UN audience.
Biden called on all nations, whether democracies or autocracies, to speak out against Russia’s “brutal, needless war” and to bolster’s Ukraine effort to defend itself.
“We will stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression, period,” Biden said.
Biden also highlighted consequences of the invasion for the world’s food supply, pledging $2.9 billion in global food security aid to address shortages caused by the war and the effects of climate change. He praised a Un-brokered effort to create a corridor for Ukrainian grain to be exported by sea, and called on the agreement to be continued despite the ongoing conflict.
Biden, during his time at the UN General Assembly, met with Secretary General António Guterres and held his first meeting with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, during which they discussed Russia’s war, energy security and China.
He was scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron later in the day.
He was also expected to press nations to meet an $18 billion target to replenish the Global Fund to Fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, reiterating the US commitment of $6 billion to that goal.
But the heart of the president’s visit to the UN this year was his full-throated censure of Russia as its war nears the seven-month mark. One of Russia’s deputy UN ambassadors, Gennady Kuzmin, was siting in Russia’s seat during Biden’s speech.
The address came as Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine have announced plans to hold Kremllin-backed referendums on becoming part of Russia and as Moscow was losing ground in the invasion.
The White House said the global food security funding includes $2 billion in direct humanitarian assistance through the United States Agency for International Development. The balance of the money will go to global development projects meant to boost the efficiency and resilience of the global food supply.
“This new announcement of $2.9 billion will save lives through emergency interventions and invest in medium- to long-term food security assistance in order to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations from the escalating global food security crisis,” the White House said.
Biden was confronting no shortage of difficult issues as leaders gathered this year.
In addition to the Russian war in Ukraine, European fears that a recession could be just around the corner are heightened. Administration concerns grow by the day that time is running short to revive the Iran nuclear deal and over China’s saber-ratling on Taiwan.
His Wednesday address comes on the heels of Ukrainian forces retaking control of large stretches of territory near Kharkiv. But even as Ukrainian forces have racked up batlefield wins, much of Europe is feeling painful blowback from economic sanctions levied against Russia. A vast reduction in Russian oil and gas has led to a sharp jump in energy prices, skyrocketing inflation and growing risk of Europe slipping into a recession.
Biden’s visit to the UN also comes as his administration’s efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal appear stalled.