Will Russia go nuclear in Ukraine?

The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web

Vladimir Putin.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images)

Ukraine's counteroffensive gained momentum this week, with the country's forces overrunning Russian forces and retaking more than 20 villages in the northeastern Kharkiv region over a single day. The sudden, unexpectedly overwhelming surge forced the outnumbered Russian troops to retreat in disarray, leaving equipment behind as Ukrainian forces pushed through to the Russian border. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his troops, saying, "the enemy is panicking," and promised that Ukrainian forces would take back every inch of territory Russia has seized since invading in February.

The battlefield setbacks raised pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The rout of his forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region highlighted miscalculations by Putin and his military leaders. Prominent Russians have started publicly criticizing Putin's strategy. "Mistakes were made," Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, said in a Telegram post, calling for a change in strategy. Ukraine's military chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, there is a "direct threat" that Russia could resort to using tactical nuclear weapons, which could drag other powers into a "limited" nuclear conflict that could expand into "World War III." Would Russia go nuclear in response to setbacks on the battlefield?

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.