Moscow | Vladimir Putin rallied hundreds of thousands of reservists on Wednesday to resume his offensive in Ukraine and brand the threat of using nuclear weapons, which the United States said it “takes seriously.”
• Read more: Mobilization: rush for plane tickets to leave Russia
• Read more: Ukraine: Pope Francis condemns “tortured corpses”.
• Read more: Germany: Searching the assets of an oligarch close to Putin
UN On stage, US President Joe Biden accused Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, of “brazen violations” of United Nations principles since its invasion of Ukraine.
After Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons, the US president insisted: “A nuclear war cannot be won and should not be fought”.
A few hours ago, in a speech to the nation, Mr. Putin said he was ready to use “all means” in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting to “destroy” Russia. “It’s not nonsense,” he assured her.
The mobilization of reservists in Europe has been described as an “admission of weakness” from Moscow, whose military has suffered setbacks in recent weeks against Ukrainian forces.
The day after Russia announced “referendums” on annexing four parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, partially controlled by Moscow, it marked a new escalation of the conflict.
Avoiding announcing the general mobilization feared by millions of Russians, Mr. Putin on Wednesday ordered a “partial” move deemed “urgent and necessary.” According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, 300,000 reservists were initially affected.
“No War”
In a sign of concern among many Russians, Mr. Airline bases were attacked after Putin’s speech and an online petition against the mobilization has already gathered more than 230,000 signatures.
At least 364 people were arrested in Russia on Wednesday, according to OVD-Info, an organization that specializes in counting arrests. Mobilizations were held in at least 23 cities across the country.
- Listen to Loïc Tassé’s editorial in the live broadcast of Benoit Dutrizac’s show every day at 12:30 p.m. via QUB-Radio :
AFP journalists in Moscow witnessed at least 50 arrests on one of the capital’s central arteries. In St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, police escorted an entire busload of detainees to the center. Demonstrators chanted “No war!” and “No Aggregation!”.
“Everyone is scared. I’m for peace, I don’t want to shoot. But it’s too dangerous to go out now, otherwise there would have been a lot more people,” explained one protester in St. Petersburg, a student named Vasily Fedorov.
“Dangerous Rhetoric”
In an interview with German channel Bild TV, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow “does not believe” in using nuclear weapons. “I don’t believe the world will let it go,” he added.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Mr. He condemned Putin’s “dangerous nuclear rhetoric” and said the Atlantic alliance would continue to “support Ukraine”.
With his speech on Wednesday, the Kremlin master took a new step in his rhetoric against the West, accusing him of seeking to “divide and destroy” Russia by arming Ukraine and subjecting Moscow to a “nuclear threat”.
Its Defense Minister Mr. Soyko bluntly asserted that Russia was not at war with Ukraine “like the West.”
- Listen to Norman Lester’s editorial on Richard Martino’s show live every morning at 9:48 am. via QUB-Radio :
For its part, China, observed by Russia, has distanced itself by respecting the ceasefire and the territorial integrity of the states, which implies a plan to annex part of Ukraine to Russia.
Faced with a chokehold on his offensive in Ukraine, which is soon entering its eighth month, Mr.
Transfer of prisoners
Ahead of regional mobilization, Tuesday’s announcement of annexation “referendums” in Moscow-controlled areas of Ukraine from September 23 to 27 signaled a tightening.
Russian military doctrine provides for the possibility of resorting to nuclear strikes if territories considered by Moscow to be Russian are attacked, possibly even in annexed territories.
The elections will be held in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which are in the Donbass (east), and in the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in the south.
The votes were criticized by Kiev and its Western allies, who described them as “simulacra” of ballots with no legal value.
Separately, ten prisoners of war from several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have been transferred from Russia to Saudi Arabia as part of an exchange between Moscow and Ukraine, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said. The prisoners are also from Sweden, Morocco and Croatia.
In the field, mobilization may herald an escalation of violence at the dawn of the 8th month of conflict.
Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday accused Russia of bombing the site of Europe’s largest Zaporizhia power plant (southern Ukraine).
In Kharkiv (northeast), Ukraine’s second city near the Russian border, Svetlana, 63, urges Russians to defy mobilization orders and “finally wake up.”
Neighbor Galina, 50, resents the Russians, who say they want to “liberate” her. “What do you want to free us from?” she asks. “In our homes? From our relatives? Of our friends?
The day after Russia announced “referendums” on annexing four parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, partially controlled by Moscow, it marked a new escalation of the conflict.
Avoiding announcing the general mobilization feared by millions of Russians, Mr. Putin on Wednesday ordered a “partial” move deemed “urgent and necessary.”
