Arthur Greene
After Russian president Vladimir Putin suffered the humiliating loss of the city of Lyman, his strongman ally has suggested that he unleashes nuclear weapons to turn the tide of the war.
Soldiers raised the Ukrainian flag in Lyman, just a day after Putin announced that the region it’s in, Donetsk, would be part of Russia “forever”.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya – a republic of Russia – responded to the humiliation by calling for Putin to use low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Kadyrov said on Telegram.
Kadyrov, whose regime has been accused of committing human rights abuses in the past, became the first official to publicly call for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
In a stinging criticism of Russia’s military, Kadyrov said “there is no place for nepotism”.
The man often referred to as “Vadimir Putin’s attack dog” then launched into a scathing rant about Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, the Russian officer in charge of operations in Donetsk.
He called Lapin “mediocre” and said he “would have demoted Lapin to private, would have deprived him of his awards and would have sent him to the front line to wash off his shame with the rifle in his hands.”
American officials are reportedly getting increasingly nervous that Putin is willing to unleash his nuclear arsenal.
However, experts believe that the chances remain small; the military benefits of a nuclear bomb are said to be few and Putin needs to keep China on his side.
