The head of Nato has accused Russia of “reckless and dangerous” nuclear rhetoric after President Putin warned again this week that the conflict in Ukraine could escalate into a third World War.
“Russia must know that a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought,” Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato chief, said as defence ministers from the western military alliance gathered for a summit in Brussels.
The alliance is expected to offer Kyiv an upgraded relationship through the creation of a Ukraine-Nato Council next month. The deal falls some way short of membership, but Ukraine would be a “full-fledged” participant at a council table rather than being invited only for special discussions, as is the case now. It would be able to call for meetings and give direct briefings on the latest battlefield situation, as part of a deeper co-operation with Nato involving joint exercises, intelligence sharing and defence investment.
There are also plans to bring Ukraine’s armed forces into line with Nato standards. “It would signal a shift and would enhance Nato’s relationship with Ukraine. I think it would bring benefits to both sides,” said Julianne Smith, the US ambassador to Nato.
Putin said on Tuesday that continued supplies of western weapons to Ukraine risked triggering a nuclear conflict with the United States, with President Lukashenko of Belarus adding he had no doubt his Kremlin ally would follow through on the threat “if he is put up against a wall or forced into a corner and there is no other way out”.
Belarus has begun taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, expected to be housed at Lida airbase, 25 miles from the Lithuanian border.
Sergey Karaganov, a senior figure at Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, added to rising tensions by declaring that Washington would not retaliate if Moscow “hit a bunch of targets” in Europe because it would be unwilling to risk seeing its own cities destroyed in a nuclear war.
Western and Ukrainian officials have said that Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is highly unlikely to be backed up by action. However, some analysts believe that Karaganov’s comments add a new element of uncertainty. Karaganov, who is close to members of Russia’s national security council, may have been speaking for influential people within the military and security services, wrote Andrey Pertsev, an analyst for Meduza, a Russian opposition website. Pertsev also warned that the Kremlin adviser’s arguments may seem “logical and convincing” to Putin and his inner circle of hardliners.
Stoltenberg said: “We are, of course, closely monitoring what Russia is doing. So far we haven’t seen any changes in their nuclear posture that requires changes in our nuclear posture. But at the same time what we see is part of a pattern where Russia has invested heavily in new modern nuclear capabilities and also deployed more nuclear capabilities, including close to Nato borders.
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, urged Nato member states to “dig deep” and supply Ukraine with more weapons and ammunition to drive out Putin’s invading forces. He said the war was a “marathon, not a sprint”.
Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, said Kyiv’s counteroffensive had seen a “gradual but steady advance”. However, she warned that Russian forces were putting up “powerful resistance”, including on the southern front. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelensky, said Ukraine has so far been “testing” Russian defences and looking for weaknesses. “We haven’t yet started our counteroffensive as such,” he told national television.
Up to 100 Russian troops are said to have been killed after they were ordered to gather for a speech by a military commander, Russian military bloggers said. They said the soldiers were hit by Ukrainian missiles, including US-supplied Himars, after they were forced to wait for two hours in the same place for the commander to arrive.
The incident is said to have taken place near Kreminna, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region. The commander responsible for the troop’s deaths was identified by pro-war blogger as Sukhrab Akhmedov, of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army. “Such commanders should be shot,” said one military blogger.
Separately, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited the Zaporozhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. There have been growing fears about an accident at the plant, Europe’s largest, since the destruction of the vast Novo Kakhovka dam that provided water to cool its reactors. Russia seized control of the plant shortly after the start of its invasion last year.
“We can see that the situation is serious, the consequences [of the collapse of the dam] are there, and they are real,” Grossi said. “At the same time, there are measures that are being taken to stabilise the situation.”