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Russia Threatens With Nuclear Weapons; 300,000 Reservists To Ukraine

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the West that he is not bluffing over nuclear weapons and that military reservists are to be sent to Ukraine as part of a partial mobilization of Russian forces.

Wednesday’s threats came ahead of plans to organize referendums in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine as motivated Ukrainian forces rapidly approach these areas.

Officials on the self-declared separatist “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson in the south announced hastily organized plebiscites from Friday to Tuesday.

Yet as preparations were underway, the world edged towards even more instability with Putin speaking about a possible nuclear conflict amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He said that “Even nuclear blackmail has come into play. We are talking not only about the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine encouraged by the West, which threatens to unleash a nuclear catastrophe. But also about statements made by some high ranking representatives of leading NATO military alliance countries on the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction against Russia nuclear weapons.”

President Putin added: “I want to remind those who allow themselves such statements about Russia that our country also has a variety of weapons of mass destruction and in some areas even more modern than those in NATO countries.”

TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

He warned that “if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will, without question, use all means at our disposal to protect our people and Russia. This is not a bluff.”

In the same televised address to the nation, Putin also said Moscow would send additional Russian forces into Ukraine to ensure what he called “Russian territorial integrity.”

His Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in separate remarks that 300,000 would support the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, Russia’s first mobilization since World War Two.

Shoigu also said 5,937 Russian soldiers had been killed since the start of the conflict, much lower than other estimates. Faced with massive battlefield losses, President Putin accused the West of wanting to see Russia weakened.

He spoke as Western nations condemned Moscow’s plans to hold so-called referendums in parts of Ukraine that are currently under Russian control.

The United States, Germany, and France have said they would never recognize the results of what they called such “sham” ballots. And world leaders gathered in New York for a United Nations meeting – in which U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also participated.