Putin ally says West’s deliveries of new arms to Kyiv will lead to global catastrophe
Russia, which invaded Ukraine almost a year ago, continues to use threatening rhetoric in attempts to dissuade the West from continuing to support Kyiv militarily. Western countries want to send more air defenses and armored vehicles to Ukraine this year – beefing up Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and go on the offensive. For Moscow, this is merely another problem compounded in its inability to achieve any semblance of victory in Ukraine.
Every time Russia senses it is failing on the ground, it tries to roll out new threats, mostly aimed at convincing Western media that Moscow might use nuclear weapons or escalate the war.
The latest comments in this fashion were made by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who warned on Sunday that “Weapons supplies to Ukraine by the United States and NATO for attacks on Russia would lead to retaliatory use of more powerful armaments,” according to TASS, Russia’s state media.
He continued that “Supplies
of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global disaster. If Washington and NATO countries send arms that will be used for attacks on peaceful cities or attempts at occupying our lands, a threat they have been making, this would provoke retaliatory measures with the use of more powerful weapons,” Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.
This threat comes as Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, warned on Thursday about the risk of “nuclear” war, a threat
issued on Telegram as well. “The loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war,” Medvedev wrote.
Medvedev is a former Russian president and has made outlandish statements in the past. Nevertheless, his statements on Sunday clearly are receiving support from the highest of levels.
Every statement put out by Russian politicians is choreographed to threaten the West. Russian President Vladimir Putin uses these political voices to leak his own thoughts. Of course, that doesn’t mean the threat is real; rather, they are timed to feed into Western media cycles for amplification.
Currently, there is a debate in the West about sending main battle tanks to Russia, including the German-made Leopard tanks. However, Germany and other states are reticent to send more weapons and want to make sure that if they send tanks, there is a coalition of Western countries that will follow suit.
Germany has made it seem like it will only sign off on sending tanks if the US sends its own Abrams tanks. This adds nuance to the issue, because even though the US has given huge sums of money and plenty of arms to Ukraine, it may not be ready to ship large tanks – though it is sending other types of armored fighting vehicles.
All of this said, Moscow is interested in shifting focus to what the West is doing and seeks to draw red lines so that Moscow has an excuse to escalate. The latest rhetoric is another attempt by Moscow to lay the ground work to excuse its own escalation.