On 21 November, Russia attacked the city of Dnipro with an Oreshnik nuclear-capable hypersonic missile. A week later, Putin went to his new go-to move: threat-bragging that Oreshnik missiles turn everything they hit to dust. The same day, he played up Western countries supposedly considering transferring nuclear weapons to Ukraine, saying that ‘Moscow reserves the right to use all means of destruction available to it.’

Once more, Russia is accusing Ukraine of threatening Russia in the same way that the Kremlin is threatening Ukraine. For example, by alleging that Ukraine is building a dirty bomb and trying to get Western nukes, high-level Russian officials appear to be laying the disinformation groundwork for possible nuclear attacks. Commentators, meanwhile, have made wild threats about bombing NATO countries to re-establish ‘deterrence’. Moscow is shouting at a mirror, not at Ukraine.

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