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Ukraine invasion: Would Putin Press The Nuclear Button?
‘I Had No Idea He Was There’: Families’ Shock at Video of Captured Russian Soldiers
Telegram channel Find Your Own identifies PoWs – much to the horror of families who did not know they were part of invasion
Russia Ukraine Conflict: Peace Talks Begin in Belarus in Crucial 24 Hours
BBC News 28 FEB.2022.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has just put his country's nuclear forces on "special" alert
Let me begin with an admission. So many times, I've thought: "Putin would never do this." Then he goes and does it.
"He'd never annex Crimea, surely?" He did.
"He'd never start a war in the Donbas." He did.
"He'd never launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine." He has.
I've concluded that the phrase "would never do" doesn't apply to Vladimir Putin.
And that raises an uncomfortable question: "He'd never press the nuclear button first. Would he?"
It's not a theoretical question. Russia's leader has just put his country's nuclear forces on "special" alert, complaining of "aggressive statements" over Ukraine by Nato leaders.
Listen closely to what President Putin has been saying. Last Thursday when he announced on TV his "special military operation" (in reality, a full-scale invasion of Ukraine), he delivered a chilling warning:
"To anyone who would consider interfering from the outside - if you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history."
"Putin's words sound like a direct threat of nuclear war," believes Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, chief editor of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
"In that TV address, Putin wasn't acting like the master of the Kremlin, but the master of the planet; in the same way the owner of a flash car shows off by twirling his keyring round his finger, Putin was twirling the nuclear button. He's said many times: if there is no Russia, why do we need the planet? No one paid any attention. But this is a threat that if Russia isn't treated as he wants, then everything will be destroyed."
Pictured in 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin watches the launch of a missile during military exercises aboard the "Pyotr Veliky" nuclear missile cruiser
Mr Putin, could resort to more desperate measures if his war in Ukraine is perceived to be failing
In a 2018 documentary, President Putin commented that "…if someone decides to annihilate Russia, we have the legal right to respond. Yes, it will be a catastrophe for humanity and for the world. But I'm a citizen of Russia and its head of state. Why do we need a world without Russia in it?"
Fast forward to 2022. Putin has launched a full-scale war against Ukraine, but the Ukrainian armed forces are putting up stiff resistance; Western nations have - to the Kremlin's surprise - united to impose potentially crippling economic and financial sanctions against Moscow. The very existence of the Putin system may have been put in doubt.
"Putin's in a tight spot," believes Moscow-based defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. "He doesn't have many options left, once the West freezes the assets of the Russian Central bank and Russia's financial system actually implodes. That will make the system unworkable.
"One option for him is to cut gas supplies to Europe, hoping that will make the Europeans climb down. Another option is to explode a nuclear weapon somewhere over the North Sea between Britain and Denmark and see what happens."
If Vladimir Putin did choose a nuclear option, would anyone in his close circle try to dissuade him? Or stop him?
"Russia's political elites are never with the people," says Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov. "They always take the side of the ruler."
And in Vladimir Putin's Russia the ruler is all-powerful. This is a country with few checks and balances; it's the Kremlin that calls the shots.
"No one is ready to stand up to Putin," says Pavel Felgenhauer. "We're in a dangerous spot."
The war in Ukraine is Vladimir Putin's war. If the Kremlin leader achieves his military aims, Ukraine's future as a sovereign nation will be in doubt. If he is perceived to be failing and suffers heavy casualties, the fear is that could prompt the Kremlin to adopt more desperate measures.
Especially if "would never do" no longer applies.
Families’ Shock at Video of Captured Russian Soldiers....
Ukrainian officials have published dozens of videos of what they say are captured Russian soldiers, as the brutal fighting in Ukraine enters its fourth day.
In one of the videos, published early on Sunday morning on the Telegram channel Find Your Own, set up by Ukraine’s interior ministry, a visibly injured soldier identifies himself as Leonid Paktishev, the commander of a sniper unit based in the Rostov region.
The Telegram channel, which first went live on Saturday, has posted numerous videos and photos showing captured Russian troops, which have led to an outcry from their families who say they were shocked to find out about the involvement of their loved ones in the invasion of Ukraine.
The Guardian spoke to three family members who confirmed the identity of Paktishev and said they were shocked and angry when they found out after seeing the video that their loved one had been captured.
Kharkiv governor claims Russian troops repelled from city
“I was sent the video of my brother captured at 2am last night. I was completely shocked. I had no idea that he was fighting in there,” said Yelena Polivtseva, the sister of Paktishev.
In the video, Paktishev, from the small town of Mezdhurechenskiy in western Siberia, said he led a team of three other snipers.
“I knew Leonid was in the military, but I had no idea that he was sent to Ukraine. I don’t think he would have been aware of it either,” said Polivtseva, who went by her maiden name.
Russia has so far not commented on the videos released and has revealed very little information about the state of its soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The Russian ministry of defence on Sunday evening for the first time admitted that there were “dead and wounded soldiers amongst our comrade[s]”, but added that “the number of destroyed [Ukrainian] nationalists by far outweigh” the number of Russian casualties.
Asked about her brother’s involvement in Russia’s unprovoked invasion into Ukraine, Polivtseva said she was not “competent” to judge the decision of our “commander-in-chief”. But she said she hoped the fighting would end. “No one needs this, not Ukraine and not Russia. I believe we can come to an agreement through peaceful means so that our sons, brothers and husbands don’t die.”
Polivtseva said she last talked to her brother over the new year holiday. She had also sent him a birthday message on social media on Thursday, the day the invasion started and he turned 28.
“I saw he was not online and got a bit worried then. Now am so so worried, I haven’t slept all night, my children are crying, our mother is in a critical state.”
Ukraine has been urging family members of captured Russian troops to contact them and to voice their opposition to the country’s involvement in the war.
The Ukrainian ministry of defence set up a hotline for the family members of Russian soldiers called “Come Back Alive from Ukraine”. According to the Kyiv Independent, the hotline had received “hundreds of calls” since the start of the invasion.
Another close family member of Paktishev, who asked for his name not to be used, expressed anger over the relative’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.
“How else can you feel?! Young boys are thrown like cannon fodder, and most importantly for what?! For palaces in Gelendzhik?” the family member said, referring to the palatial mansion on the Black Sea that Russian independent journalists have said is linked to Vladimir Putin.
The family member said he received an overnight message on their Vkontakte social media page informing them about the capture, with the video that was circulating online attached.
The message, seen by the Guardian said: “Good evening, I would like to say hi from the Ukrainian people. I would like to make you happy that a close person to you is still alive. Go out and protest, overthrow your government before we bury all in Ukrainian soil. Be damned and burn in hell. Glory to Ukraine.”
Dmitry Selyanin, a third relative of Paktishev the Guardian spoke to, said he had been in a state of disbelief ever since he found out about his cousin’s capture. “He is a sniper and snipers aren’t loved by the enemy. In the video we don’t get to see the other snipers in his group, we don’t know what happened to them. So we can only guess what they will do to Leonid,” he said.
Selyanin said the family was approached by the Russian authorities on Sunday afternoon. “They asked for some of the details about him – nothing special,” he said.
Other reports also detailed the surprise of family members of Russian soldiers at the involvement of their loved ones in a war that has been met with deep unease by many in the country.
Vladimir Putin on Russian state TV
‘Don’t call it a war’ – propaganda filters the truth about Ukraine on Russian media
On Saturday the independent TV channel Dozhd published an interview in which a visibly distressed father of a young Russian soldier said he did not want his son to become “cannon fodder”, denying that he had any prior knowledge of his son’s involvement in the conflict.
The Find Your Own Telegram channel also published a number of graphic photographs of what were said to be Russian troops killed in action. If confirmed, the images appear to shine a light on the true toll the war has had on the Russian army.
An adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday that about 3,500 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured so far in Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
On Saturday evening, Zelenskiy announced that Ukrainian and Russian delegations were planning to meet, news that was welcomed by Paktishev’s family, who are desperate to see him again. “Do you think there is a chance I will see him alive?” his sister Yelena asked.
Russia Ukraine Conflict: Peace Talks Begin in Belarus in Crucial 24 Hours...
28 Feb 2022 Channel 4 News
It is day five of Russia's invasion of Ukraine - and if by this stage Vladimir Putin had hoped to have key regions of this country under his control he has been proved wrong in part by the resilience of Ukranian forces - civilian and military.
At the same time there are fears that he has moved more tanks and artillery into position for the next and far more violent phase of this war, especially if the tentative talks under way on the Belarus border fail.
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