Threats and Targets in the Russian-Ukraine War

By Matthew Grace

The Russia Ukraine War escalates further this week as Russia hammers out threats of nuclear weapons usage and a potential plan to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the US and his exchanges with the UN, he has highlighted the UN’s shift away from Russia’s invasion and towards the crisis in the Middle East and warned of a possible Russian plan to attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants and other key Ukrainian infrastructure. Ukraine anticipates this attack due to Russia piggybacking allied satellites to gather detailed information on the Ukrainian facilities. During the rounds at the UN, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the impact the Russia Ukraine War is having on world peace as it is “exacerbating threats to peace and security in Europe, Indo Pacific, and the Middle East” through Russian military trade deals of munitions to microelectronics with North Korea, Iran, and China in exchange for funds and favors.

The escalation of the war this week peaked on Wednesday when Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened the West that “Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles (aircraft or drones), and Moscow would consider any assault on it (by Ukraine) supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack” (CNN). Putin elaborated, “Russia deserves the right to also use nuclear weapons if it… or Belarus were subject to aggression”, “the nuclear doctrine is changing”, further solidifying Russian red lines in this conflict. Zelensky, with “encouragement” from other western powers, has urged the West to cross and disregard Russia’s “red lines”, emphasizing that “Russia no longer has any instruments to utilize in the world apart from nuclear blackmail” stated Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s Chief of Staff in response to Putin’s claims of such attacks sparking WWIII. Putin’s claim of an expansion of the war into Russian territory with conventional ordinance has also worried President Biden and former President Donald Trump regarding foreign policy goals and de-escalation hopes, seeing that Russia possesses the World’s largest supply of nuclear weapons.