Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that his country “has not gone mad” and would not threaten to use nuclear weapons recklessly.
“We have these means in a more advanced and modern form than any other nuclear country, that’s an obvious fact. But we are not going to run around the world brandishing this weapon like a razor,” he said.
Echoing the same rhetoric since the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian leader also claimed that Moscow had no choice but to intervene militarily in the neighboring country. According to him, the war began in 2014, when the then Ukrainian president and Kremlin ally, Viktor Ianukovich, fled the country in the midst of a pro-Western revolt.
The statement was made at a session of its Human Rights Council. At the event, he complained that Western human rights organizations viewed Russia as “a second-class country that has no right to exist”. Interestingly, this Wednesday, the UN released a report attributing hundreds of civilian deaths in the war to the Russians.
“There can be only one answer on our part: a consistent struggle for our national interests,” Putin said. “We will do this in various ways and means. First and foremost, of course, we will focus on peaceful means, but if nothing else remains, we will defend ourselves with all means at our disposal,” he added.
Still this Wednesday, Putin acknowledged that the war could go on for a long time, but ruled out that he is preparing a new mobilization of reservists – the last one, of 300,000 men, was completed in October.
The Russian president said that of that total, 150,000 were deployed in Ukraine, 77,000 of which are in combat units, and the rest perform defensive functions.
UN report
Russian troops killed at least 441 civilians in the first days of the invasion of Ukraine, the UN human rights office said on Wednesday. To arrive at the account, the agency documented attacks and executions until April in dozens of cities.
“There are strong indications that the summary executions documented in the report constitute a war crime of intentional homicide,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement. In all, attacks and deaths were recorded in 102 cities and towns.
Among the dead civilians were 341 men, 72 women, 20 boys and 8 girls. According to the organ, the real number of dead civilians, however, should be much higher, mainly in the regions of Kiev, Chernihiv and Sumi – scenes of some of the worst clashes at the beginning of the war. At the end of October, the agency was still trying to corroborate another 198 alleged killings of civilians in the three regions.
In a parallel account, the United Nations says it has recorded 6,702 civilian deaths since the start of the invasion, with most of them allegedly caused by Russian troops. Russia’s foreign and defense ministries did not respond to Reuters news agency requests for comment.
Moscow denies that its attacks are targeting civilians. Last week, Putin, on the other hand, said that his country would not stop attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, in particular the power grid, claiming that such actions are a response to the explosion of the bridge that connects mainland Russia to Crimea.
The UN, for its part, announced that it is investigating whether the attacks on civilian infrastructure do not amount to war crimes. The lack of energy in various regions of the country, for example, tends to make the winter more rigorous and, consequently, increase the number of deaths in the war.
The scope of the report released on Wednesday was limited to areas controlled by Russia during the first days of fighting, including Butcha, where hundreds of bodies were found after Russian troops abandoned the town. The UN has already documented 73 deaths in the municipality and is analyzing another 105 cases – according to the organization, many of the bodies showed signs that the victims could have been killed intentionally.
One of the purposes of the report is to document the victims and those possibly responsible for the deaths. Of a hundred cases analyzed in detail by the UN, 57 were classified as summary executions, of which 30 were of detained persons. In another 43 episodes, civilians were killed while moving between settlements on foot, bicycle, car or van.
“Most victims were targeted while commuting to work, delivering food to others, visiting neighbors or relatives or trying to flee hostilities,” Türk said.
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