This is the Guardian.

Today, what's behind Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats?

The Guardian

So on Friday, I headed down to the Kremlin in the morning because it was one of the biggest days

in the war so far. Andrew Roth covers Russia for the Guardian.

And what was happening was that Vladimir Putin was gathering his top officials,

all the members of the legislature and thousands of Russians were coming to Red Square to celebrate

the annexations of territory in occupied Ukraine.

There's been a countdown on television for the last 24 hours.

Everybody's waiting for Putin to give the speech that everybody expects is going to be

extremely aggressive and he does not disappoint.

He goes into the speech talking about how Russia is regaining itself and lands.

And he's really creating the sense of triumphalism that Russia has become strong again,

that this war is worth it. And it's in the middle of this speech when Putin makes this very

interesting statement about how important it is for Russia to defend the land it's taken.

And he says, you know, we're going to defend these lands using all means necessary.

The United States in 1945 said a precedent.

America is the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons twice

when they destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

By the way, they set a precedent with that.

And that's precedent, you know, that we've noted.

And it's one that is still active today.

...