The Ukrainian head of state argued that Putin will not risk deploying weapons of mass destruction because doing so would completely isolate Russia internationally, permanently alienating the Kremlin's remaining diplomatic partners and economic lifelines, including China and the United States.
"I don't think Putin will risk using nuclear weapons. But, on the other hand, we are dealing with a person and an entire system that will cling to him until the end of his days, just as he clings to it, because only when his life ends will he ever leave the Kremlin," Zelenskyy observed.
Zelenskyy further underlined that shattering the nuclear threshold poses an existential hazard even to established nuclear-armed powers, warning that normalizing tactical atomic strikes would establish a devastating precedent capable of replicating across the Middle East and other volatile conflict zones across the globe.
Kremlin Nuclear Saber-Rattling and Western Pressure
Putin and senior Russian officials have repeatedly issued public nuclear warnings against Ukraine and NATO member states. On Oct. 1, Putin declared that Russia will deploy "all available weaponry at its disposal" in the event of any "direct assault," specifically referencing regional tensions surrounding Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad during large-scale NATO military maneuvers.
Zelenskyy's dismissal of Kremlin nuclear posturing arrives as U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff traveled from an Oslo summit with Zelenskyy directly to Saint Petersburg on Oct. 21 to meet with Putin. After presenting peace proposal frameworks to the Russian dictator, Witkoff provoked widespread diplomatic controversy by describing Putin — who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes — as a "humanist."
Despite repeated strategic blackmail, Russian ground operations have stalled in eastern Ukraine: the Institute for the Study of War reported that Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi in northern Donetsk routed Russia's 144th Motorized Rifle Division, liberating 277 square kilometers and negating Moscow's net 2026 territorial gains.