Nuclear threat looms over Ukraine

As the political warring between Tory factions continues in Britain, a real war is heating up further afield in Europe.

Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive – which President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged at the weekend is finally underway – is making modest gains. 

According to Kyiv officials, its troops have made advances in the South-East, successfully recapturing seven settlements in Bakhmut and the eastern region of Donetsk, covering at least 35 square miles. 

Ukraine’s military push is coming at a cost, however. Russia President Vladimir Putin is responding by ramping up air raids, especially over southern Ukraine. 

At least three people have been killed and another 13 injured after Russia launched a relatively rare overnight missile attack on Odessa, the strategic port city vital to Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports. The missiles targeted a warehouse, a business centre and shops. The military is now sifting through debris to see if there are any more victims trapped underneath. 

Three others have been killed in Russian missiles in the eastern Donetsk region while those in Kryvyi Rih – the home city of President Zelensky – are mourning the death of 12 civilians killed in a missile strike launched yesterday. 

In another concerning development, nuclear sabre-rattling has taken a new form. This time, Putin’s number one ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, is the one ramping up the rhetoric. 

According to Lukashenko, Belarus has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons – “three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki” – and “everything is ready” for their deployment. “If [Putin] calls, I pick up any time. It’s no problem at all to coordinate launching a strike,” he told a Russian state TV host. 

Notably, this is thought to be the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union that Moscow has moved warheads out of the country. 

What’s more, the cost of one of the biggest environmental disasters in Europe for decades is still rising. Over 7,000 flood victims have been evacuated since last week’s destruction of the Kakhovka dam. 

The dam breach is also a stark reminder of the wider impact of war in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials are warning that the flooding will lead to price increases in global food staples such as corn, wheat and soybeans. 

It’s too early to say if Ukraine’s much-anticipated counter-offensive will be a turning point in the war. At the moment, the only thing that looks certain is that the death toll on both sides will continue to mount. There is no end to the war in sight. 

The West has dismissed Lukashenko’s nuclear threats, with the US saying it has seen no sign that Russia is preparing to deploy a nuke. Yet even if such threats fail to break the West’s support, the latest pushback from Putin and his closest ally is still a reminder of just how high the stakes are. 

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