We will not emerge from a world exposed to the risk of nuclear war. The rare democracies that are equipped with weapons must think about it actively and take it on with determination, she says.
On February 27, 2022, four days after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin declared that he was putting the deterrent forces on a special combat regime. The words paralyze the Western media and put NATO headquarters on alert. However, satellite observations will not detect any maneuvering movements around the Russian establishments, Rosselets says. She says Putin chose to use this threat during the development of a conventional offensive in order to encourage his adversaries to show restraint in providing indirect aid to the Ukrainians. Some believe that this prevented the rout of the Russian army. The Russian president's threat to use nuclear weapons to intimidate the West has been seen before, she adds. It was used during the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and she says she saw this mobilization of nuclear potential coming.