Nuclear War is not about Russia versus Ukraine, says expert

The geopolitical expert Rawi Abdelal said on Wednesday that the broader question of nuclear war is not about Russia versus Ukraine but Russia versus the West.

In an exclusive interaction with India Today, Rawi Abdelal, Director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, spoke about the possibility of a nuclear war amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Abdelal pointed out that President Putin wants to go down in history as the president who restored Russia's greatness in central and eastern Europe.

The question of nuclear war as we once feared is not about Russia versus Ukraine but rather Russia versus the West and for that logic, we must think what are the ways in which Russia and NATO could come to a nuclear war between the great powers and a single tactical nuclear strike in Ukraine Moreover, Abdelal highlighted that the network around President Putin is very loyal. There was a time when money bought power in Russia. It is the other way that power leads to money. All these yachts and villas are at the pleasure of the elites. There is a deep interest in maintaining this system as it is. He further stated that there are two ways to think about the possibility of a nuclear strike. One is a tactical strike, just a nuclear weapon not a big one on the territory of Ukraine as Russian forces get further bogged down and may last longer. Russia on Tuesday called for Ukrainian forces to immediately lay down arms and issued a new ultimatum for the defenders of the besieged port city of Mariupol to give up their resistance.

The Russian defence ministry's warning came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced late on Monday the start of a new offensive by Moscow, focused on the east of the former Soviet state.