Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Saturday urged Moscow to consider deploying low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine after Russian forces withdrew from the town of Lyman.
In a post shared on Telegram, Kadyrov said he believed that “more drastic measures should be taken, up to and including imposing martial law in the border areas and using low-yield nuclear weapons.”
Kadyrov is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who appointed him prime minister of troubled Chechnya in 2007.
The comments came after Russia lost its Lyman stronghold in eastern Ukraine following a massive offensive from Ukraine.
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(File Photo) Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Saturday urged Moscow to consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after Russian forces withdrew from the town of Lyman. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images))
Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, including low-yield tactical nuclear weapons designed for use against opposing armies.
Other senior Putin allies, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have floated the idea that Russia may need to use nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov’s suggestion was the clearest.
Putin said last week he was not bluffing when he promised to use “all available means” to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity.” The US has said it would respond strongly to any use of nuclear weapons and has threatened “catastrophic consequences” if Moscow deploys the weapons.
The Ukrainian flag flies in a badly damaged residential area in the village of Dolyna in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, after the withdrawal of Russian troops September 24, 2022. Many houses and the St. George’s Monastery were destroyed in the Russian attacks. Ukraine said on Saturday that its soldiers are entering the town of Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russia annexed a day earlier. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Kadyrov has been a vocal supporter of the war against Ukraine, with Chechen forces forming part of the vanguard of the Russian army in the region.
The Chechen leader said in his post that Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, commander of the Russian forces fighting at Lyman, was “mediocrity”. Kadyrov suggested demoting the commander to private and removing his medals.
Kadyrov is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who put him in charge of troubled Chechnya in 2007. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via Portal ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.)
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“Today, due to a lack of basic military logistics, we gave up several settlements and a large piece of territory,” Kadyrov said.
Kadyrov said he warned Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, about the possibility of defeat at Lyman two weeks ago, but Gerasimov dismissed the idea.
Portal contributed to this report.