Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled a major shift on Sunday which made the threat nuclear war a dangerous reality.
The Russian leader raised his nuclear deterrent forces to an elevated alert status Sunday, citing “aggressive statements” from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and increased sanctions against his regime.
Putin argued via state-owned Russian news that NATO’s aggression against his country has gone beyond economic sanctions and has therefore warranted a more radical response on his part.
“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said.
The Russian defense minister, Sergey Shoygu, and the chief of the military’s general staff have been ordered to put the nuclear deterrent forces on high alert status in what was defined as a “special regime of combat duty.”
“He is right now threatening a nuclear escalation,” former DIA intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler said of Putin. “This a veiled threat – or maybe such a veiled threat – he just met with his chief of general staff and minister of defense. He is escalating the conflict into the nuclear domain in order to de-escalate – that is topple Kyiv’s regime quickly.”
When Putin initially announced his “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Russian leader warned any nation who should stand in his way that they will face “consequences you have never seen.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Linda Thomas Greenfield said that Putin’s latest move “means that President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable and we have to continue to stem his actions in the strongest possible way.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also gave a statement on CNN in which he said, “This is dangerous rhetoric. This is behavior which is irresponsible.”
“If you combine this rhetoric with what they’re doing on the ground in Ukraine- waging war against the independent sovereign nation, conducting full fledge invasion of Ukraine- this adds to the seriousness of the situation,” he also said.
“That’s the reason why we both provide support to Ukraine but also why we over the last weeks and months have significantly increased the presence of NATO in the eastern part of the alliance.”
The United States and its allies have imposed a number of increasingly severe sanctions against Russia in response to the conflict with Ukraine which have even gone as far as to remove several Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
The U.S. issued a statement condemning Russia’s actions and committing to standing with Ukraine: “We stand with the Ukrainian people in this dark hour. Even beyond the measures we are announcing today, we are prepared to take further measures to hold Russia to account for its attack on Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Communist China has suggested that the United States is the “real threat” to the world.
While China has attempted to cast some doubt on where it stands in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this move signals they are most definitely backing Russia.
The CCP’s top “wolf warrior” spokesman Zhao Lijian took to Twitter — which is banned in China — specifically to attack the United States.
“Never forget who’s the real threat to the world,” Zhao wrote alongside an infographic sarcastically entitled “USA Bombing List: The Democracy World Tour” listing military interventions and wars since the Second World War. The post was then shared by the Chinese embassy in Russia.
