China has reportedly warned Vladimir Putin not to use tactical nuclear weapons on Ukraine as the war intensifies. The warning was relayed through Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a senior European official, according to reports.
Putin is reportedly planning to escalate the war in Ukraine, with Russian officials claiming he may resort to using nuclear weapons in the coming months. The news comes as negotiations for a peace deal have reportedly reached a dead end.
Escalating attacks and collapsed negotiations
Russia is currently intensifying the use of ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, including in the centre of the capital, and infrastructure targets in other Ukrainian cities. Three people close to the Kremlin said that negotiation frameworks have collapsed and Putin won't end the war under economic pressure.
It is viewed by Moscow that the Ukrainian strikes are attacks by NATO states because Kyiv is supplied with weapons by alliance members. Putin signaled his intentions as he told a state TV reporter that Ukraine “opened this Pandora’s box. Well, be ready to get a blowback on your most sensitive sectors of the economy.”
US efforts stall and Kremlin abandons agreements
Efforts of the US to help a breakthrough have halted as Trump focuses on the conflict with Iran, according to Bloomberg. It is reported that the Kremlin have also abandoned reliance on agreements made between Putin and Trump at their summit in Alaska last August. The US were set to pressure Ukraine to surrender its eastern Donetsk region as part of a deal to end the war.
Russia's forces have failed to capture the eastern Donetsk region in the fighting since 2014 and Ukraine continues to reject Putin's demand to hand over the cities. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear in June that Washington didn’t share Russia’s view, saying “if there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war.”
On Tuesday CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare visit to Moscow for talks with Russian counterparts, though it’s unclear what was discussed.
Few alternatives to further escalation
The sources close to the Kremlin said Moscow sees few alternatives to further escalation of war with expectations of a breakthrough very low. The Kremlin believes it has already made concessions during the war and weakened Russia’s position, they said.
In recent months Russia and Ukraine have both stepped up air attacks on each other's territory. Targeted attacks by Ukraine on oil refineries has led to widespread fuel shortages in Russia, causing billions of damage to logistics networks.
The escalation of strikes is leading a growing number of Russian officials to the conclusion that Putin could opt to use tactical nuclear weapons as a last resort in Ukraine. This extreme response is deemed possible because the only outcome worse than continuining the war is losing it for Putin, sources say.
Although tactical nuclear weapons have a shorter range than strategic missiles they can still devastate an entire country and create nuclear fallout contaminating large areas of land, hence why key Russian partners have warned the president to not use them. Putin is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan next week.
