- Putin raises the possibility of boosting nuclear forces.
- Russia to deploy Sarmat ICBMs in 2023.
- ‘Step back from the brink’, says U.N. chief.
Ukraine said its forces had repelled Russian assaults along the length of the front line on Thursday on the eve of the war’s anniversary, as President Vladimir Putin, empty-handed after a bloody winter offensive, talked up Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Putin revealed intentions to deploy new Sarmat multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missiles this year, following a series of vehement statements in the run-up to the anniversary of his invasion. He pulled Russia out of the START nuclear weapons limitation accord earlier this week.
“As before, we will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,” said Putin, referring to nuclear missiles based on the land, sea, and in air.
“We will continue mass production of air-based hypersonic Kinzhal systems and will start mass supplies of sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles,” Putin said in the remarks issued by the Kremlin early on Thursday.
Ukraine and its Western allies have dismissed the nuclear posturing as a distraction from Russia’s failed military effort on the ground, a year after Putin launched Europe’s largest land war since World War II.
Russia has launched infantry attacks across the frozen ground in fights characterized by both sides as the worst of the war.
Western authorities believe Russia prepared an offensive to grab more territory ahead of the anniversary, enlisting hundreds of thousands of reservists in recent months to give Putin a win to announce.
Moscow’s forces have made headway in their attempt to encircle the small town of Bakhmut, but have been unable to breach Ukrainian positions to the north near Kremmina or to the south at Vuhledar, where they have suffered significant losses assaulting across open land into the teeth of Ukrainian fire.
Ukraine’s military announced early Thursday that it has withstood 90 Russian strikes in the northeast and east in the previous 24 hours.
In anticipation of Moscow launching long-range missile attacks on the anniversary of the war, Ukraine has closed several schools. Officials in Kyiv, though, believe Russia no longer has the capability for a dramatic show of force.
“Nothing unusual will happen. Usual (Russian) effort… A small missile strike is planned,” Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told the Ukrainska Pravda news website in an interview.
“23-24 (February), they have two dates. Believe me, we have experienced this more than 20 times,” he said.
Despite costly unsuccessful attacks there earlier this month, Britain’s military indicated in a daily intelligence assessment that Moscow may be plotting another large-scale assault on Vuhledar. Moscow announced last week that significant losses had rendered two brigades of thousands of elite Russian marines battle ineffective.
With no significant battlefield successes to declare in time for the anniversary, Putin has resorted to nuclear bluster, saying in a huge address on Tuesday that Russia would withdraw from the New START weapons limitation deal.
The practical effects appear to be limited: treaty inspections had already been discontinued due to the conflict. According to a senior defense official, Moscow will adhere to the treaty’s missile limits and continue to tell Washington when it does so.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who upstaged Putin this week by journeying unannounced to Kyiv and then giving a landmark speech of his own to a crowd in Warsaw, called the suspension of START a “big mistake” but said on Wednesday: “I don’t read into that that he’s thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that.”
The RS-28 Sarmat missiles, codenamed “Satan 2,” whose deployment Putin ordered on Thursday, were first unveiled in 2018 and were scheduled to be deployed last year.
The US believes Russia conducted a Sarmat test immediately before Biden’s visit to Ukraine, but the test failed. The Russian defence ministry has not yet responded to the report.
Putin also promised more hypersonic weapons, which are too quick to be shot down. Russia has sent a frigate to South Africa to participate in military exercises with China, which are set to begin on Friday.
Despite losing swaths of land in major battlefield reverses last year after failing to conquer Kyiv at the commencement of its “special military operation,” Russia still controls about a fifth of Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on both sides are thought to have killed in the last year. Russian shelling has decimated Ukrainian cities and displaced millions of people.
Since their last operation in November, Ukrainian troops have focused primarily on defence, anticipating that Russian forces restocked with reservists will be fatigued in attacks. Meanwhile, Kyiv has secured Western weapon commitments for a planned counter-offensive later in 2023.
The United Nations General Assembly is poised to vote a resolution calling an end to the invasion on the eve of its first anniversary in New York. By collecting yes votes from nearly three-quarters of countries, Ukraine seeks to further isolate Russia diplomatically.
The wording is uneven, according to Russia, which argues its invasion was justified by security reasons.
“Russia violated the U.N. Charter by becoming an aggressor,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said at the United Nations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday denounced Russia’s invasion as a violation of the founding U.N. Charter and international law.
“We have heard implicit threats to use nuclear weapons. The so-called tactical use of nuclear weapons is utterly unacceptable. It is high time to step back from the brink,” Guterres said.
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