Europe Remains Unfazed by Russia’s Recent Nuclear Threats

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Russia has recently issued numerous nuclear threats, including a specific target in Europe and the time it would take a Russian missile to reach it. However, European leaders appear unfazed by these threats. In interviews with TIME, two European leaders dismissed Vladimir Putin’s warnings of annihilation.

“I cannot assure you whether it is a bluff or not,” says Mette Frederikson, the prime minister of Denmark, a strong advocate for military aid to Ukraine within NATO. “But my take is that we can never let someone who does not respect democracy, human rights and all the things that we believe in — we cannot let him decide what the rest of us should do.” 

Russia’s escalating nuclear threats are aimed at discouraging Western support for Ukraine, particularly regarding long-range strikes against Russian targets. On Sept. 19, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for Ukraine to receive the weapons and permission to launch such strikes. Moscow reacted with unusually blunt language. 

“What the European Parliament is calling for will lead to a world war with the use of nuclear weapons,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian parliament and a member of the state’s security council, wrote on Telegram. He claimed that a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile could reach Strasbourg, France, home of the European Parliament, in just three minutes and 20 seconds. “Do European citizens want the war to reach their homes?” Volodin asked. 

However, Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, did not seem alarmed or surprised by this apocalyptic rhetoric. “It’s a typical reaction,” she told TIME a few days later. “It’s confrontational.” Pressed on whether she took such threats seriously, Metsola added: “If that’s going to be the increasing rhetoric, that’s something we’re going to have to be prepared for.”

This measured response reflects a growing trend among Western officials. Many perceive Vladimir Putin as the boy who cried wolf too many times, diminishing the impact of his nuclear deterrent and allowing many Europeans to lose their fear of it. “Fear and leadership do not go hand in hand,” says Frederikson, the Danish PM. She argues that Western preoccupation with Putin’s red lines has delayed support for Ukraine. “The only red line I see in this war has already been crossed when they attacked Ukraine.” 

Despite ignoring its red lines, Russia continues to establish new ones. Days after Volodin’s threat against Strasbourg, Putin, at a televised meeting of his security council, announced that Russia would lower its threshold for using nuclear arms. He stated that Russia could respond with a nuclear bomb if faced with a large-scale conventional attack, such as missile or drone strikes. 

This formal change in Russia’s nuclear policy — which previously envisioned a nuclear response only in the event of an existential threat to Russia — garnered headlines and sparked debate in Western capitals. However, it did not alter the tone from Ukraine or its allies. “Russia no longer has any instruments to intimidate the world apart from nuclear blackmail,” Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in response to Putin’s latest threat. “These instruments will not work.”