Putin vows to ‘punish’ West amid chilling nuke drills after frozen Russian assets given to Ukraine

Putin vows to ‘punish’ West amid chilling nuke drills after frozen Russian assets given to Ukraine

Russian saber rattling has reached fever pitch after President Vladimir Putin vowed to punish the West for boosting Ukraine’s war chest with frozen Russian assets and his ministry of Defense released footage of sailors pressing the nuclear button in simulated drills with tactical nuclear weapons we’re in again my name is Jerome starky I’m the defense editor at the Sun newspaper and this is Frontline your weekly Roundup of the most important news from the war in Ukraine we’re going to start with what’s been happening both in Moscow and with the G7 leaders Summits the G7 leaders have promised to give Ukraine $50 billion in a loan underwritten uh by Frozen Russian assets and the interest payments on those frozen assets across the G7 countries now President Vladimir Putin has today responded to that calling it theft and insisting that that theft will not go unpunished essentially what it means is a huge cash boost for keev which will allow the government of president zalinski to uh continue to effectively to operate to continue operating as it continues to resist that Russian invasion and that money is on top of uh the significant investments from allies principally the United States and the European Union in terms of resourcing that fight against Russia now a sign that this is concerning the Kremlin Vladimir Putin’s comments calling it theft and vowing that reprisal and that reprisal that threat of a reprisal coming just days after the ministry of Defense in Moscow released this footage of its troops carrying out what it called a non-strategic nuclear exercise non-strategic is the Russian uh phrase the phrase the Russians have used that is essentially referring to tactical nuclear weapons lower yield nuclear weapons Moscow announced these drills itself in response to previous uh calls from Western capitals from Western leaders to both send Western troops to Ukraine and indeed to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to Target Russian soil now we’ve seen Ukraine winning that argument America has finally relaxed its position it has allowed Ukraine to use some of its weapons to hit some targets on Russian soil but they remain caveats and President Biden has still maintained that whilst keev can use American missiles to hit Targets in in the near abroad if you like it in the um close to the frontier with Ukraine he is still prohibiting Ukraine from using those weapons to hit taget in much deeper Russian territory that debate is ongoing one of the questions from last week was why now why is that change happen now uh partly to do with mounting Ukrainian pressure also partly to do with the Russian offensive launched from belgrod into harv around V Chans the second thing I want to talk about today is the peace talks uh plan peace talks happening in Switzerland over this weekend uh Vladimir Putin putting forward his own version of what it would take for Moscow to announce a ceasefire and that’s effectively capitulation and we also know that China is is separately quietly putting forward its own attempt at a diplomatic track towards finding a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine but effectively what you have is three parties almost at War over how to reach peace 160 countries have been invited to The Summit in Switzerland we know Representatives some 160 thereabouts countries and organizations have been invited to attend the uh peace conference in lucern in Switzerland about 90 countries we understand expected to uh attend but Russia boycotting it president zelinsky’s uh conditions for peace for for any peace talks is that Russia rather conditions for peace is that Russia must withdraw all of its forces from Ukrainian territory Vladimir Putin’s put forward his version of what it would take for Russia to announce an immediate Ceasar it is effectively total capitulation he wants Ukraine to seed denet luhansk hon and Zappa region regions immediately to withdraw its forces and to renounce all Ambitions of joining NATO that seems extraordinarily unlikely uh that would effectively require Ukraine to seed more territory than it has currently lost over the last two plus years of this conflict it would also require Ukraine to seed two Regional capitals the city of hon and the city of zapia which the respective capitals of zapar Province and Kon province which are both firmly currently in Ukrainian uh control we also understand from a report uh by the Reuters news agency based on conversations with diplomats in China that Beijing has been encouraging countries where it wields influence to boycott the peace process or at least the peace talks happening and due to take place in Switzerland they uh China the People’s Republic of China we understand from that report trying to uh gather support and momentum for its own uh peace process interesting that at the same time the G7 leaders have issued a draft communic uh calling on China to stop supplying Russia with dual use military Parts you’ll remember Britain called out Beijing for supplying what it said was Lethal Aid to Russia the G7 using slightly different language but the understanding seems to be that China continues to supply Russia with components high-tech componentry and Parts which are vital for its arms industry for Russia’s arms industry these are dual use Parts but Parts which Russia needs in order to sustain its Frontline forces to build the ammunition uh the missiles and the weapons which it is using to prosecute this war in Ukraine China has for some time tried to play an almost neutral part but as the war has progressed it’s become clearer and clearer that Beijing is sided with Russia you’ll know of course Vladimir Putin has made more visits to China than any other country since the start of this war and China’s support in many ways crucial for Russia’s ongoing conflict although in in terms of volume and in terms of lethality it is Iran and North Korea that continue to provide uh the one-way kamakazi attack drones from Tran and just huge volumes of ammunition shells from North Korea the final thing we want to talk about today is what’s happening uh around in rural harv province with that Russian counter offensive two things worth noting footage has emerged of some 24 Russian soldiers who appear to have been uh surrendered and been captured by Ukrainian forces amid uh claims that they had launched a failed attack on an industrial plant near V Chans and suggestions that the Russian offensive has been getting bogged down this was the Russian offensive from belgrod into kiv province which opened up effectively a new front or renewed an old front in the campaign Russian State News Agency Tas interestingly reporting that they believe there is a buildup of Ukrainian forces in that area and that Ukraine may be planning a counter offensive so that is something we’ll keep a close eye on when Russia launched that attack in harv Province it looked like an attempt to distract Ukraine’s forces to divert them from the east from the fighting in the donbas particular around places like chazar which is adjacent to bahmut and AV divco which had been the focus and continue to be the main focus of Russians offensives we will keep an eye on whether there are indeed plans for a or indeed whether we see evidence of a Ukrainian counter offensive now if you’re watching on YouTube and you got any questions please do write them in the comments below and we will endeavor to uh answer them uh next time loads of comments really great response from last week so thank you for that uh the first see lots of comments from last week’s video uh reminding us uh making clear that Crimea is not sovereign Russian territory uh and that the Kirch Bridge uh is linking occupied Crimea to Sovereign Russian soil uh it was never my intention to uh suggest that Crimea is Russian territory and I apologize if I gave that impression it was misleading that it was not Our intention uh we understand that Crimea is occupied Russian territory uh the strikes uh this was in relation to the fact that Ukraine had launched strikes with atacam missiles at Targets in uh and around Kirch uh that was happening simultaneously with the uh evidence that America was on the cpov and we now know has uh rolled back uh or sort of softened its position and has allowed Ukraine to hit Targets in Sovereign Russia but those are different things Kirch not sovereign Sovereign Russia clearly targets such as in elod are in Sovereign Russia uh question number two was how is this conflict affecting ordinary people in Russia and why don’t we see more reporting of that it’s a really good fair question the short answer is it’s really difficult for us to tell principally because we’re not in Russia I’m not in Russia I’m banned from going to Russia and in fact there is very uh limited reporting and freedom of movement for journalists there but from what we can Gather in fact the impacts of this war people are being shielded inside Russia from the impacts of this conflict that appears to be the result of a deliberate Kremlin policy both the very tight control of news and how this war is reported and indeed uh attempts to limit their exposure to the front lines in terms of how people are affected whether you know communities affected by this conflict we saw in wars in uh particularly Russia’s war in Afghanistan in the 1980s that actually it was the mobilization of soldiers mothers uh which really ultimately sort of changed the tide of public opinion against that conflict that hasn’t happened uh on the same scale we have seen firebombing attacks against mobilization centers and conscription centers in uh Russia we have seen Ukraine launching those successful attacks drone attacks against oil refineries uh and targets deep inside Russian territory and that is an attempt uh both to bring the war home to people in Russia so they can see it and feel it and that has also had an impact on oil prices and petrol prices inside Russia so the war is having an impact but we haven’t seen large scale protests or demonstrations against the conflict uh hard to know really where the tide of popular opinion in Russia sits on this conflict at the moment uh and the final question uh was how would would America accept Russian military bases in Mexico and that clearly is an attempt uh to understand this conflict from the Russian point of view therefore should Russia uh accept American military bases in Ukraine Well Point number one is that America does not have did not have military bases in Ukraine um in a simple answer the question would America accept Russian bases in Mexico it would almost certainly cause a huge diplomatic and geopolitic IAL instant and of course it has Echoes of the Cuban Missile Crisis when the Soviet Union tried to position nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba in America’s backyard and ultimately uh backed down after sort of a fairly fraught moment of nuclear brinkmanship the difference of course is that Ukraine is part of Europe and neighbors uh the European Union and neighbors Russia whereas Mexico is the other side of the Atlantic Ocean we’re not talking uh about Europe or NATO uh projecting itself many thousands of miles Ukraine is an adjoining territory and crucially Ukraine is a sovereign country which has expressed particularly after this Invasion its desire to join uh both NATO and the European Union and ultimately this comes down to a recognition of Ukraine’s right to sovereignty that is a right which Moscow categorically denies uh we hear Russia we hear the kreman referring to the Former Republic of Ukraine suggesting it’s not a real country it’s just uh a part of Russia a limb that Russia has lost which is seeking to regain that is not how this conflict is seen inside Ukraine where they where you it’s a country that feels like it has been uh violently uh and horrifically invaded and Ukraine is fighting to repel those Invaders as ever if you got more question questions please write them in the comments below and we will do our best to answer some of them next time

Russian sabre rattling has reached fever pitch after President Vladimir Putin vowed to Punish The West after it boosted Ukraine’s war chest with frozen assets as his Ministry of Defence released footage of sailers pressing the nuclear button in simulated drills with tactical nuclear weapons.

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