Putin warns of nuclear retaliation due to military setbacks in Ukraine
Russian threats of nuclear escalation are notably resurfacing as President Vladimir Putinâs âspecial military operationâ enters its third year.
Why?
Outright victories on the Ukrainian battlefield are proving elusive for the Russian military, rendering Ukraineâs withdrawal from Avdiivka a significant rare win for Kremlin propaganda.
But it came at a high cost to Moscow throughout the front lines.
Ukraineâs Ministry of Defense reported Oct. 9 total Russian-troop deaths of 282,630.
By Feb. 20, they were at 404,950.
Thatâs more than 122,000 Russian soldiers killed in 19 weeks of fighting.
Compare Soviet-military deaths in Afghanistan: 15,000 in 10 years.
Unsustainable? By Western standards, probably, but thatâs a hazard of mirror imaging.
The Kremlin has demonstrated a complete disregard for civilian and military casualties and will continue to press its counteroffensive as Ukraine exhausts its ammunition supplies; there are more bodies where those came from.
Ukraineâs military-intelligence agency says Russia has about 450,000 soldiers deployed in the country.
Putin has the towns of Krynky, Verbove, Robotyne, Synkivka, and Ivanivka in his sights, and Russian barrier troops â which keep soldiers from evacuating â will ensure forward movement.
But upcoming Biden administration and German decisions concerning the deployment of precision deep-strike weapons â namely ATACMS and the Taurus cruise missile â are likely weighing heavily on Putinâs mind, along with the coming introduction of F-16 fighter jets.
Ditto bilateral security guarantees, some signed just days ago, with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Canada â and Swedenâs and Britainâs announcements last week of additional military assistance.
Europe is not giving up on Ukraine.
Propaganda wins aside, it was a losing week for Putin.
While the Kremlin pushed Ukrainian forces out of Avdiivka, devastating human and equipment losses belie Putinâs âwinningâ narrative.
As many as 65 soldiers from Russiaâs 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade stationed near Trudivske, in the Donetsk region, were killed midweek in a single HIMARS strike on their training area.
And Ukraine can use Western-supplied weapons to hit inside Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters last week: âAccording to international law, Ukraine has the right to self-defense. And it also includes strikes against legitimate military targets, Russian military targets outside of Ukraine.â
Then Friday, Ukraine shot down its second Russian A-50 surveillance aircraft in just over a month.
Ukrainian military sources said they hit the plane â whose cost can run to the hundreds of millions of dollars â between Russian cities Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar.
Thatâs more than 124 miles from the front line, adding to speculation as to what weapon system was used to take it down.
For the week, Russia lost an additional seven aircraft, Su-34 fighter-bombers, and Su-35S fighter jets.
What to know about this stage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
![](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Ukraine-July17-infobox-update.jpg?w=1024)
1. Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces continued advancing around the city of Bakhmut in the east, claiming gains along the Bila Hora-Andriivka and Bila Hora-Kurdyumivka lines southwest of the city that was captured by Russian troops in May. Over the past week, Ukraineâs General Staff reported that Kyivâs fighters had liberated more than 1.5 square miles of territory in the area, including an important position outside the strategic village of Klishchiivka. Capturing the village itself, which lies on higher ground, could potentially allow Ukrainian soldiers to encircle Russians inside Bakhmut.
2. Tavria
Ukraine claimed to have recaptured several villages in the south of the country as part of its budding push toward the Sea of Azov, with the aim of cutting off Russiaâs land bridge linking occupied areas in the east to Crimea. A general in charge of that sector said his troops repelled 27 enemy attacks and inflicted hundreds of casualties on the enemy.
3. Zaporizhzhia
Kyivâs forces launched a successful missile strike on a Russian base in the occupied town of Tokmak in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, killing as many as 200 soldiers and the town commandant. Overall in the eastern theater, Ukraineâs military said its troops had retaken 65 square miles of territory since the start of the counteroffensive in early June.
4. Berdyansk and Melitopol
Kyivâs forces reportedly inched forward more than half a mile in the Berdyansk and Melitopol directions in the south in recent days â and a total of more than 5 miles since the beginning of counteroffensive operations in these directions. In Berdyansk, a key port city on the Black Sea, a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile strike this week leveled a hotel housing Russian military commanders, among them a high-ranking general who was killed.
5. Bakhmut
Kyiv said its troops had advanced about a mile on the flanks of the ravaged city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which was seized by Russiaâs Wagner Group mercenaries in May after months of fighting and handed over to the regular units. Moscow claimed it had fought off the assault, and senior US officials said that Ukrainian troops in the east sustained âsignificantâ losses in soldiers and equipment.
6. Belgorod
Pro-Ukrainian rebels have been carrying out raids into the Russian city of Belgorod located on the border with Ukraine, as Kyivâs forces continued shelling the city and sowing chaos. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from the region, sparking fury in the Kremlin. Partisans taking part in the Belgorod campaign said when Crimea is liberated, they will march on Moscow.
The A-50 downing was parlayed Friday evening when Ukrainian drones were able to strike deep into the Russian interior, hitting the Novolipetsk Steel factory in the city of Lipetsk, responsible for nearly 18% of the countryâs steel output.
Putin needs a global way out to reset his military.
Killing Alexei Navalny solidified his domestic position, but it changed the decision-making calculus vis-Ã -vis Ukraine for many Western leaders.
âEscalating to de-escalateâ is a favored Putin tactic, and thus he is once again playing nuclear cards to try to intimidate the West to stand down in Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, Security Council deputy chairman and former president, threatened America and Europe last week with nuclear annihilation should Russia lose the war and be forced to return to its 1991 borders.
His statement came shortly after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) announced he âhad information concerning a serious national security threat,â which turned out to be a
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