Western weapons in Ukrainian double attack on Sevastopol: Crimean attacks expose Putin’s empty threats

Fear of a massive traffic jam on the Crimean Bridge

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the attacks on Sevastopol had taken place using S-200 missiles that continued to be produced during the Soviet era. Western experts confirm that several British-supplied ‘Storm Shadow’ missiles were used. And the head of the Ukrainian Air Force, looking at the successes of his “Storm Shadow” missiles, dryly noted that the Russian fleet in Crimea had had a “stormy night.”

Actually a through ball for Putin. Here we have it: Ukraine is attacking our territory with Western weapons, he might say. His Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (68) recently confirmed once again that Western weapons against Crimea would amount to a Western attack on Russia.

Russia’s only response so far: the renewed closure of the major Crimean bridge between the occupied peninsula and the Russian mainland to civilian vehicles. Probably out of fear that all the fleeing Russian tourists could clog the road and prevent the military vehicles from getting through.

Experts do not rule out the use of nuclear weapons

Otherwise, Moscow will keep quiet. Instead of giving the West an ultimatum, they deny the proven use of British missiles in Crimea. Russia seems like a schoolyard bully who threatens to hit everyone – and then suddenly becomes very meek towards the stronger opponent. In fact, the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) writes that the Russian threat to the West has actually decreased in the short term as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Gulnaz Partschefeld (42), a presenter at the Russian state broadcaster until 2006 and now a lecturer in Russian cultural history at the University of St. Gallen, tells Blick: ‘I do not rule out the possibility that Putin would resort to tactical nuclear weapons. as a military defeat was imminent.” Either to destroy a Ukrainian region or city, or to create a better starting position at the negotiating table.

“Today’s nuclear arsenals are still sufficient for nuclear overkill,” Partschefeld says. Russia still has an estimated 4,489 nuclear warheads. “But a nuclear attack would be Putin’s last act. It would mean the end of Putin, and he knows it.”