Russia Expert Warns Putin May Opt For Battlefield Nukes

Matthew Schmidt, professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven and an expert on Russia who teaches strategic and operational planning at the US Army's Command and General Staff College, warns Russian President Vladimir Putin may escalate the war in Ukraine and use battlefield nuclear weapons to compel Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to capitulate.

Photo Insert: Nuclear weapons in the Ukrainian museum

In an interview with Chauncey Devega for Salon on Mar. 26, 2022, Schmidt said “I see a war of independence that started in 2004 and will come to an end here. I do not believe it's just a war of independence in Ukraine. In the end, this all ends in the streets of Moscow.

The shooting may stop in a year, it may stop in five years, or it may take considerably longer. But this is the event that has to bring down Putin. I think Ukraine frees Russia, eventually.”

“Putin talks as though we're going to roll tanks to Moscow from eastern Ukraine, which is just absurd. What such claims reveal is that Putin doesn't understand modern warfare. Stupidity is always a causal possibility here as well. Or Putin is engaging in maskirovka, this idea that you lie and deceive your enemy. One can even lie to their own people in the pursuit of this greater good,” Schmidt argued. Putin is actually losing the war," he added.

“At the start of the war, the discussions about the potential for Putin to use nuclear weapons were hyperbolic. We have seen his tone change. We now have to take Putin's threats seriously and consider the most extreme possible outcomes. I do not believe that Putin is going to nuke London and New York. I think that the real threat is the use of battlefield nuclear weapons. Because to me, what is driving Putin is his vision of manifest destiny for Russia and the larger region. I also believe that this vision is quasi-religious. What happens with secular ‘religious’ fanatics, people possessed by some sense of destiny and vision, is that they often end up as martyrs and are willing to do extreme things. That is what is truly frightening to me,” he concluded. Zelenskyy has effectively become a world leader who has led his people to a stalemate against the second-best military on the planet. Even if he can't "win," he's shown Western militaries how to use information, diplomacy and force of arms to fight the most modern war yet. He will be studied in war colleges for decades to come."

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