Zelensky’s Office Calls Putin's Nuclear Threats a 'Scare Tactic'

Nuclear blackmail is the only tool Russia has to intimidate the world, but it won't work, the head of the President's Office, Andrii Yermak, said after Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced changes to his country’s nuclear doctrine.

“Besides nuclear blackmail, Russia has nothing else, no other tools for intimidating the world. These tools will not work,” Yermak said, on Sept. 25.

This statement followed President Vladimir Putin's announcement, at a televised session of Russia’s Security Council on Wednesday, that he has made changes to the nuclear deterrence doctrine, to allowing for a nuclear strike on non-nuclear states, in response to attacks on Russian soil including through the use of drones.

He also noted that nuclear weapons could be used in the event of aggression against Belarus or if an adversary creates a critical threat to Russian sovereignty using conventional weapons.

At the meeting on nuclear deterrence, Putin said that the military-political situation in the world is changing and creating new threats and risks for Russia, and that Russia is updating the “Fundamentals of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence.” This is a document that formally defines and details Moscow's nuclear strategy.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the head of the Ukrainian President's Office, commented on Putin's statements, calling them “a reputational low.”

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He said that Putin, who launched a three-day “special military operation” more than two and a half years ago is now reading from a piece of paper about the possibility of using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state if provoked with conventional weapons.

Podolyak said that this is unprecedented in terms of a nation’s international reputation. According to him, the Russian authorities do not understand how to stop the war and have no idea how to act further in the current situation.

Andriy Kovalеnkо, head of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), believes that Putin's nuclear blackmail stems from fear of Ukrainian weapons, which deprive Russia of strategic weapon stockpiles and harm its ability to continue terror.

"This is a scare tactic born out of fear. Nothing more," he added.