Putin’s nuclear threats on Ukraine require proactive, not reactive response: experts

Experts say rather than worrying about how to respond to a potential nuclear strike by Russia, the West needs to apply further pressure to prevent that outcome.

Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility of using nuclear weapons to escalate the war in Ukraine, a major question has been how Western allies would respond if that threat was carried out.

But experts say that question is the wrong one to ask. Instead, they say the West must see Putin’s threat for what it likely is — an empty one — and continue to proactively push back on Russia economically while helping Ukraine win the war.

“Putin wants the threat to remain a threat because he wants to scare the Americans and the Ukrainians to the negotiating table,” said Andrew Rasiulis, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute who spent decades with Canada’s Department of National Defence.

“He doesn’t want to actually use it … because he’s not suicidal.”

The threat of nuclear weapons being launched in Ukraine has been swirling around the war ever since it began in late February. Russia is home to the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, a fact Putin has repeatedly reminded the West of.

But concern has intensified as Russia’s military faces one setback after another, each of which has led the Kremlin to escalate its aggression. When Russian forces were pushed back from Kyiv in March, for example, Russia responded with increased missile and shell attacks on Ukrainian cities, killing thousands of civilians in an effort to diminish morale and force a surrender. The strategy didn’t work.

Last month, as Ukrainian forces successfully began retaking occupied territory in the east and south, Putin ordered a partial mobilization of up to 300,000 Russian reservists and declared plans to annex four regions of eastern Ukraine.

During his announcement, he said Russia would “use all means available to us” to defend itself if its territory is threatened, including “various weapons of destruction.”