The threat of nuclear weapons has receded. This is the observation made by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in an interview published on Thursday 8 December. “One thing has changed for the moment : Russia has stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons”, he said in an interview with German media group Funke Mediengruppe and West France. The risk of Moscow using nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine has diminished as the international community, including China, “draw a red line” to Russia, assured the Chancellor. Follow our live.
Vladimir Putin relativizes the use of nuclear weapons. “We haven’t gone mad, we know what nuclear weapons are”, said the Russian president on Wednesday, speaking by videoconference before his Human Rights Council, an organization entirely subject to the Kremlin. After several threats to use them having emanated from Russian officials in recent months, he stressed that these weapons were “a means of defence”that they were intended for a “retaliatory strike”. In other words, “if we are hit, we hit in response”hammered the Russian head of state.
150,000 reservists mobilized in Ukraine, according to Moscow. Russia has deployed to Ukraine almost half of the men recruited during the partial mobilization of reservists, about 150 000 soldiers, Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday. “Out of 300 000 of our mobilized combatants, our men, our defenders of the fatherland, 150 000 are in the area of operation”, said the Russian president during a televised meeting, specifying that 77 000 are deployed directly in combat.