February 21, 2023, 16:33 – BLiTZ – News
Tuesday, February 21, was marked by a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin before the Federal Assembly. The speech of the leader of the country can be conditionally divided into two parts. The first part was standard and devoted to socio-economic issues. But the peculiarity of this part was that more time was devoted to it than to special operations in Ukraine. Putin wanted to demonstrate that “normal peaceful life” continues in Russia despite the conflict. This is written by the Ukrainian edition “Strana.ua”.
However, the second part of the speech, which took about ten minutes, was more serious. In it, Putin announced the suspension of Russia’s participation in the START treaty, which regulates the number of nuclear weapons in Russia and the United States, as well as the mechanisms for monitoring them. The reason for the suspension was the accusation of NATO countries of facilitating Ukrainian strikes against Russian strategic aviation bases, as well as the requirement to allow observers to Russia from the entire NATO alliance.
Putin said that Russia now considers it right to take into account the nuclear potential of all NATO countries in the treaty. In fact, he proposed to revise the system of control over nuclear weapons that had been established during the Cold War. However, given the tension between Russia and the West, the NATO countries may not agree to this, and the control system may simply cease to exist without being replaced by a new one.
In addition, Putin announced the withdrawal of new strategic ground-based complexes on combat duty and the resumption of nuclear tests if the United States resumes them. These statements can be seen as a game to raise the stakes in relations with the West. They may indicate that Russia is ready to raise the stakes if the West does not change its position.
How far is Vladimir Putin willing to go in the game of raising the stakes? In the West, the Kremlin’s nuclear allusions are skeptical.
At the same time, and this message once again showed this, Putin considers the main enemy not Ukraine, but the “global West”.
“Therefore, theoretically, it cannot be ruled out that at some point Putin, if the hints do not work, and especially if the situation in Ukraine develops negatively for the Russian Federation, may bring Russia’s relations with the United States to the level of escalation during the “Caribbean Crisis” of 1962 year, demonstrating a willingness to use the “last argument” and, thus, hoping to induce the West to make the required concessions,” the authors summarize.
On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation Army launched a special military operation in Ukraine.
Acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin said that the Russian Armed Forces are approaching Vuhledar from three directions at once: from the south, southwest and west. The head of the DPR stressed that “the process is not going fast.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, said that the situation in Donbass is getting tougher. According to Zelensky, a very difficult situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine is developing in Artemovsk (Bakhmut) and Vugledar, as well as in Limansky and other directions.
