On Sunday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk is going to provoke Russia into using its nuclear weapons. So far, Russia has exercised a lot of restraint in not following through with its threats, but surely it has a real line.

Russia Makes More Threats Against Ukraine With “Harsh Response” Rhetoric

In an interview with Russia-1 aired on Sunday, Lukashenko warned that Kyiv’s operation in the Kursk Region, which is the largest cross-border assault by Kiev since the outbreak of the conflict, posed enormous risks to global security.

“The danger is that this kind of escalation on the part of Ukraine is an attempt to push Russia into asymmetric actions, for example, the use of nuclear weapons,” the Belarusian leader said. According to a report by RT, he added that such a move would be a PR bonanza for both Kiev and its Western backers.

“Then we would probably have hardly any allies left. There would be no sympathetic countries left at all,” he noted, explaining that this reaction would be based on the universal aversion to the fallout that could be caused by nuclear weapons.

Lukashenko also responded to statements by Ukrainian officials that the Kursk incursion was aimed at improving Kiev’s diplomatic position for possible talks with Russia. This plan is “a classic, but it does not work in a struggle against a great empire that has not even begun to fight in earnest,” he argued, adding he was sure that the Ukrainians would eventually be expelled from Kursk Region. –RT

According to its current nuclear doctrine, Russia can deploy its nuclear arsenal only “in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it or its allies, and also in case of aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened.”

Russia: Supplying Ukraine With Warplanes Is A “Nuclear Threat”