In the wake of Vladimir Putin's barely veiled nuclear threat [9] upon announcing a mobilization of Russia's reserve forces to reverse his recent losses in Ukraine on Sept. 21, official and semi-official Moscow commentators have made such menacing completely explicit. Later that same day, former Putin advisor Sergei Markov was interviewed [10] by BBC Radio, whose anchor politely began with "Good morning to you." Markov replied: "It's not a good morning for everybody. In Russia there's partial mobilization and for Western countries, for your British listeners, I would say that Vladimir Putin told you that he would be ready to use nuclear weapons against Western countries, including nuclear weapons against Great Britain. Your cities will be targeted." (Daily Beast [13], Indy100 [14])
Russian-backed separatists in Russian-occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia are currently holding "referendums" on becoming part of Russia. The Russian parliament could move to formalize the annexation within days. By incorporating the four areas into Russia, Moscow could portray Ukrainian attempts to retake them as attacks on Russia itself, meeting Moscow's stated criteria [15] for use of nuclear weapons. (Al Jazeera [16])
This was made clear by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who stated: "The Donbas republics and other territories will be accepted into Russia... Russia has announced that not only mobilization capabilities but also any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used for such protection." (Reuters [17])
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his terse comments [18] before walking out on the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Sept. 23 again displayed the propaganda trick of fascist pseudo-anti-fascism [19], saying that Ukraine has "become a completely totalitarian, Nazi-like state, where the norms of international humanitarian law are trampled upon. Therefore, there is no surprise that their armed forces...are using peaceful civilians as human shields." (Economic Times [20], Asian News Internatonal [21])