Putin issues nuclear threats
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2022
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Putin warns the West he’s not bluffing and that he is prepared to use "all the means at our disposal" if Russian territory is threatened. The nuclear threat came as he announced a “partial” mobilisation of reserve troops to Ukraine. Vitaly, Victoria and the BBC’s Security Correspondent Frank Gardner unpick how real the possibility of a nuclear war actually is.
Ukrainecast’s Ivana Davidovic talks to a recent graduate from St Petersburg, who says he wants to leave Russia to avoid being drafted into the military. And he’s not alone - Olga Ivshina from the BBC’s Russian Service says flights out of the country to visa-free destinations sold out in a day.
Also, Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of the prisoners’ rights organisation Gulagu.Net, tells us that someone recently tried to assassinate him while he was at home with his family.
The series producer is Estelle Doyle. The producers are Ivana Davidovic and Arsenii Sokolov. The planning producer is Louise Hidalgo. The technical producer is Dafydd Evans. The assistant editor is Alison Gee. The editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.
Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello, it's 210 days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:13.9 | And today, President Vladimir Putin addressed his country on TV, announcing that he had ordered |
| 0:20.7 | a partial mobilization, but that was a step necessary, he said, to ensure Russian territorial |
| 0:28.6 | integrity. |
| 0:32.6 | In his address, he dwelt at length on the reasons why he said this has to happen. |
| 0:40.3 | He spoke of the brutality of neonatists and nationalists in Ukraine about Western |
| 0:46.3 | Russophobia, about repressions across Ukraine, and so on and so forth. |
| 0:55.0 | The reasons we've heard before about why he launched this special military operation, |
| 1:01.2 | but what happened today is a watershed moment, because until now, the vast majority, almost |
| 1:08.1 | all over the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, were contract soldiers who are paid |
| 1:15.0 | to do it, who are there, you could say, of their own will. |
| 1:19.6 | Now it's all changed, we're talking about 300,000 Russians, according to the Defence |
| 1:29.0 | Minister, who will face the prospect of being sent to Ukraine against their will, and this |
| 1:40.5 | is likely to have huge repercussions for public opinion in Russia. |
| 1:45.7 | It's one thing supporting the special military operation from the comfort of your home, |
| 1:50.0 | and it's a completely different thing facing the prospect of being sent to Ukraine, and possibly |
| 1:56.0 | being killed in Ukraine. |
| 1:57.9 | This is huge, and this is Ukraine past. |
| 2:01.4 | Ukraine costs from the Muslims. |
| 2:05.0 | The question for us now is to be or not to be. |
| 2:08.6 | I'm ordering the Minister of Defence to put the strategic nuclear forces on special alert. |
... |
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