As Ukraine Says Shelling Continues, Zelensky Says He Cannot Rule Out Possibility Of Russian Nuclear Strike

KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that while he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t use nuclear weapons and that “the world” would not “allow [Putin] to use those weapons,” he could not fully rule out the possibility of a nuclear strike by Moscow.

“We cannot look into [Putin’s] head,” Zelensky said. “There are risks.”

Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday that Russian forces continued to shell locations throughout the country with artillery and rocket attacks, while Ukraine troops repelled offensives along the front line in Ukraine’s east and south.

Zelensky gave his first extensive comments following Putin’s televised speech Wednesday morning to the German publication Bild – a speech in which Putin announced a “partial mobilization” of Russia’s military reserves, and said the possibility of Moscow employing nuclear weapons to defend its interests was “not a bluff.”

Zelensky said that he did not watch the Russian president’s televised speech. “This is not my favorite video,” he told Bild. “I have all the information I need.

The Ukrainian leader also said that Ukraine’s western allies and its own intelligence services told him that Russia “has been mobilizing for the past month.” The mobilization showed that Russian was experiencing problems with the supply of “officers and other military personnel,” he said.

Many of the Russian units “simply run away,” Zelensky said, and a large number of those recruited “don’t know how to fight.”

“They came to us and die,” the Ukrainian president said. “[Putin] wants to drown Ukraine in blood, but also in the blood of his own soldiers.”

Zelensky also used the opportunity of speaking to Bild – Germany’s largest newspaper – to press officials in Berlin to supply Ukraine with German tanks: it is a matter of “survival” for Ukraine and Ukrainian soldiers, he said.

In phone conversations with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelensky said, the differences of opinion between the two men led to situations where the Ukrainian leader shouted at his German counterpart.

“I was often very direct,” Zelensky said. “There were situations where the walls shook.”

Ukrainian general staff spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun told a morning briefing that “the enemy launched eight missile and 35 airstrikes” and carried out “more than 120 attacks from rocket salvo systems.” Shtupun also said that Ukrainian forces had destroyed Russian “manpower and equipment” with missile strikes on ammunitions depots and areas where Russian soldiers had concentrated.

“Missile troops and artillery over the past day inflicted fire damage on 40 enemy objects,” Shtupun said. “In particular, in 20 areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment, in 13 areas of concentration of artillery, as well as in 7 ammunition warehouses.” The Ukrainians’ statements could not be independently verified. They however do mark a slight drop off in fighting, after Kyiv forces stormed Russian positions of the Kharkiv region in the country’s northeast, one week ago, and seized large swaths of territory.

(c) 2022, The Washington Post · David L. Stern