Nuclear Weapons Use ‘Would Not Go Without a Response,’ UK Warns Russia

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly speaking at the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, on Oct. 4, 2022. Jacob King/PA Media

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has warned Russia that any use of nuclear weapons would lead to consequences.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in a speech that all weapons in Russia’s arsenal could be used if Russia’s territory is threatened.

While Putin did not specifically call for using nukes, other Russian authorities have been more explicit, including former President Dmitry Medvedev and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Talking to a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, Cleverly said: “It would inevitably be the case that the use of nuclear weapons by any country anywhere in the world would not go without a response.”

He declined to discuss “the nature or the threshold” but said: “What we have seen in Vladimir Putin’s decision-making is that he has made just so many strategic errors.”

“We need to make it very clear that his sequence of strategic errors has got to stop,” he said. “We will continue to support Ukrainians in the defence of their homeland, and stand up for the international rules and norms.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a ceremony formally annexing four regions of Ukraine Russian troops occupy, at the Kremlin in Moscow on Sept. 30, 2022. Grigory Sysoyev/Sputnik /AFP via Getty Images

‘Nuclear Rhetoric’

Putin said in an address several weeks ago: “If the territorial integrity of our nation is threatened, we will certainly use all the means that we have to defend Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff.”

Russia subsequently annexed four occupied Ukrainian regions following so-called “referendums” whose legitimacy has been rejected by Ukraine and Western governments.

The Times of London reported on Monday that the NATO military alliance had warned members that Putin was set to demonstrate his willingness to use nuclear weapons by carrying out a nuclear test on Ukraine’s border.

The newspaper also said Russia had moved a train thought to be linked to a unit of the defence ministry that was responsible for nuclear munitions.

When asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia did not want to take part in what he cast as Western exercises in “nuclear rhetoric.”

‘Strategic Endurance’

Later on Tuesday, Cleverly told the Tory conference that the UK has the “strategic endurance” to see Ukraine through to victory.

He said: “We believe in freedom. We believe in the rule of law. We believe that an aggressor cannot invade its neighbour with impunity. This is why we stand shoulder to shoulder with those brave Ukrainians defending their homeland.”

He said that Ukrainians have defended their homeland “ferociously” and that their bravery has been “amplified” by arms and training supplied by the UK.

Having committed £2.3 billion in 2022 to Ukraine’s war effort, Britain is already one of the largest military donor to Ukraine, second only to the United States.

Last month, Prime Minister Liz Truss pledged to at least match that figure for the year ahead.

PA Media and Reuters contributed to this report.