Putin’s Desperation Nuke Bluffs

No one can write off Russian thugocrat Vladimir Putin’s threats of nuclear escalation in his war on Ukraine. Yet they reveal weakness, not strength.

“When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened . . . we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin huffed last week in an unmistakable reference to nukes. That’s “not a bluff,” he added — mostly because it’s exactly that.

As earlier in the war, he’s talking tough because his forces are failing. Badly: Ukraine has recovered thousands of square miles of territory and is set to take more. Ukrainians are determined to repel the invader; Russian troops want to survive and go home — while Russian civilians are fleeing Putin’s draft.

That desperate call-up of reserves produced waves of fleeing draft-dodgers and mass protests. Conscripts who do wind up at the front will be ill-trained and -equipped.

And actually going nuclear (or using chemical weapons) would risk Russia’s obliteration, by drawing in the West. Though Putin miscalculated badly in launching the invasion and is desperate now, he’s not so deranged as to not realize this.

So Team Biden, and Europe, shouldn’t hesitate to supply Ukraine with the arms it needs. Early on, the West held back, in fear of provoking a wider war. It’s eased up since, sending increasingly powerful weapons. Yet it still won’t supply, e.g., longer-range missiles.

Russia can’t even beat Ukraine; the last thing Putin wants is to have to fight other nations as well. At best, his threats will keep making the West hesitate to fully arm Ukraine. But when you’ve got a losing hand (even one you dealt yourself ), what else can you do — but bluff ?