Russia is returning slightly from the threat of nuclear weapons, the Ukrainian military believes that due to failures in the Russian supply chain, forces invading Ukraine have only three days of fuel, food and ammunition left to wage war – and the shelling of Mariupol continues.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said last night (Tuesday) in an interview with CNN that Moscow will use nuclear weapons only if its existence is in danger. His remarks came almost four weeks after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, amid fears in the West that the conflict would escalate into a nuclear war. This fear grew after Putin himself ordered a few days after the start of the war to raise the level of readiness of the nuclear forces.
“We have an internal security concept, and it’s public,” Peskov said. “One can read all the reasons why there will be the use of nuclear weapons. If our country is under existential threat, then it can be used according to our perception. There is no further reason to mention it in this context.” Peskov’s remarks came after CNN’s veteran reporter Christian Amanpour pressed him and asked him if he was “convinced and confident” that Putin would not use nuclear weapons in a confrontation with Ukraine. Peskov did not elaborate on what, according to Putin, is an existential threat.
Meanwhile, the crown was drawn on Mariupol. A senior U.S. security official has said some of Putin’s forces are already inside the city that the Russians have been laying siege to for days. Local officials said two “super-loud explosions” were heard in the city yesterday. Authorities in Mariupol have reported that more than 2,500 people have been killed in the city since the beginning of the war in the incessant shelling of the Russian army, and that the besieged residents are running out of water and food. The electricity supply to the city has also been cut off, and residents have no heating at night, when the temperature drops below zero.
Commanders in the Ukrainian army claimed that Russian forces had only three days left of fuel, food and ammunition to conduct the war, due to supply chain failures. Western sources said the allegations were “acceptable” but said they could not confirm them. “This is consistent with the fact that progress on the ground has stalled. Failures in the logistics chain are the reasons why the Russians have not been as effective as they wanted,” a Western source said.
Russian forces in Ukraine are still mostly stuck, but the Ukrainian government made it clear yesterday that it has no doubt that the capital Kyiv continues to be Vladimir Putin’s main target, and that its siege and occupation are still a very likely scenario. Oleksei Arstovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalansky, however, warned the Russians that any attempt by them to occupy Kyiv would be “suicide for them.”
In another sign of concern around the city, Mayor Boryspil, located near Kyiv International Airport, yesterday called on his city residents to hurry up and leave if they can – because battles are taking place nearby and they are approaching it. “There is no reason to be in the city now – battles are already going on around it. I call on the residents to be smart, contact our centers – and leave as soon as possible.”
Along with the fear that the Russians will storm the capital, the Ukrainian army continues to report that it is launching counter-attacks. Yesterday morning, the Ukrainian army claimed significant success in the fighting in the suburbs of Kyiv: it said its forces had recaptured Makariv, about 50 km west of the capital.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced yesterday afternoon that the number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country has already reached more than 3.5 million. More than two million of them have arrived in Poland. The number of Ukrainians forced to flee their homes exceeds 10 million, about a quarter of the country’s population on the eve of the war.