Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russian
government officials have begun to "prepare their society" for the
possible use of nuclear weapons, saying the world must act now even
though he doesn't believe that Russia is ready to use them now.
In recent weeks, the Ukrainian army has recaptured large swathes of
territory in a successful counter-offensive that has forced Russian
troops to abandon long-held positions. In what Kyiv describes as
Moscow's response to its defeats, President Vladimir Putin has
incorporated four partially occupied regions of Ukraine.
The annexations, widely dismissed as illegal, have raised fears of a
possible escalation in the seven-month war. President Putin and other
senior Russian officials have suggested that nuclear weapons - possibly
smaller, tactical weapons - could be used to defend those areas,
although Western officials say there has been no evidence Moscow is
prepared to do so.
Zelensky denied calling for military strikes on Russia, to prevent them
using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, claiming that an earlier
interview he granted had been mistranslated.
"You must use preventive kicks," he said, referring to sanctions, "not attacks".
Speaking in English at the president's office in Kyiv, President
Zelensky said to BBC: "They begin to prepare their society. That's very
dangerous.
"They are not ready to do it, to use it. But they begin to communicate.
They don't know whether they'll use or not use it. I think it's
dangerous to even speak about it."
Then, in Ukrainian, he said through a translator: "What we see is that
Russia's people in power like life and thus I think the risk of using
nuclear weapons is not that definite as some experts say, because they
understand that there is no turning back after using it, not only the
history of their country, but themselves as personalities."
The initial comment by Zelensky was denounced by Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov as "an appeal to start yet another world war", while
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it demonstrated why Russia
was right to launch its operation in Ukraine.
"After that translation," President Zelensky said, "they [the Russians]
did their way, how it's useful for them, and began to retranslate it in
other directions."
President Zelensky said action was needed now, as Russia's threats were a
"risk for the whole planet". Moscow, he claimed, had "made a step
already" by occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's
largest nuclear station which President Putin is trying to turn into
Russian property.
Around 500 Russian troops were at the plant, he said, although the Ukrainian staff still operate it.
"The world can stop urgently the actions of Russian occupiers,"
President Zelensky said. "The world can implement the sanction package
in such cases and do everything to make them leave the nuclear power
plant."
President Zelensky said Russian forces were putting up a "good enough
fight", but that Ukraine had received weapons - "I won't say we have
enough now" - and soldiers were motivated to push forward.
Amid the losses, President Putin announced the mobilisation of hundreds
of thousands of reservists, which led to rare anti-war protests in
Russia and to a huge exodus of military-age men.
Zelensky urged Russians to "fight for your body, rights and soul",
saying: "These mobilised kids now, they come without machine guns,
armoured jackets, they are just cannon fodder.... If they don't want to
be kebab… they need to fight [for their lives].
"All Putin is afraid of is not a nuclear strike," he said. "He's afraid of his society, of his people.
"Because only these people can replace him, strip him of his power and give it to another person."
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