Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov announced a new military achievement for his special forces in eastern Ukraine, while Moscow issued a new response to Western accusations against it about the possible use of its nuclear weapons after its recent "setback" in the war.
Kadyrov, who is one of the most prominent allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that the Kyiv forces' offensive plan near the town of Berestov in the "Donetsk People's Republic" had failed.
"The enemy's offensive plan near the village of Berestov failed thanks to the courage and strength of Ahmed's special forces soldiers," Kadyrov was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying.
He noted that Ahmed's Special Forces arrested a soldier "during Bandera's counter-attack on our positions."
The President of the Chechen Republic added that a large number of Ukrainian forces were killed, as well as the destruction of many equipment.
A few days ago, Kadyrov criticized Russia's loss of strategic areas in eastern Ukraine, pledging to restore all these areas that were recaptured by Ukrainian forces in their latest counterattack.
Since the beginning of the war on February 24, Chechen units have been participating in Russian military operations inside Ukraine.
nuclear doctrine
In a related matter, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the possibility of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, said that "everything is mentioned in the nuclear doctrine of the Russian Federation."
"You can read the (nuclear) doctrine, there is everything," Peskov was quoted by the Russian "Novosti" news agency as saying.
The Kremlin's response came after repeated accusations from Western countries that Russia could resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russian President Vladimir Putin, perhaps in a show bombing over the Black Sea, the Arctic Ocean or inside Ukrainian territory.
According to military experts, the Russian nuclear combat doctrine means resorting to escalation in order to de-escalate the opponent.
The New York Times quoted US officials as saying that there is no evidence that Putin is in the process of transferring nuclear weapons, or that he is preparing for any nuclear test, and they added that the Russian president is considering some kind of additional military mobilization, in response to the recent setbacks of his forces. in Ukraine.
The Russian RIA Novosti news agency also quoted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin's ally, as saying that "humanity is on the verge of entering into a nuclear conflict," adding that Washington is pushing Europe to go to war with Russia on the territory of Ukraine.
Biden warns
For his part, US President Joe Biden warned Putin against using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons, saying in excerpts broadcast from an interview with CBS: "Don't do. Don't. Don't."
This came in response to a question about the possibility of Putin resorting to chemical or tactical nuclear weapons, after his army suffered losses in the counter-attack by Ukrainian forces this month.
"The face of war will change like no other since World War II," Biden said, adding, "They (the Russians) will become more pariahs in the world than ever before."
Ukraine has regained large areas in the east from Russian forces in recent weeks, thanks to the quality weapons supplied by its Western allies.
Medvedev's warnings
Two weeks ago, the American magazine Newsweek published that former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a stark nuclear warning to America and its allies, accusing them of wanting to take advantage of the military conflict in Ukraine in order to dismantle Russia and exclude it from the political sphere.
In a report, the magazine quoted one of Medvedev's messages - Deputy Secretary of the Russian National Security Council - on Telegram, after the funeral of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, "These are the dirty dreams of the Anglo-Saxon perverts who sleep with a secret idea about the disintegration of our state, and are thinking about how to tear us apart and cut us into pieces. small".
Medvedev added that such attempts are dangerous and should not be underestimated, "These dreamers ignore a simple axiom: the strong disintegration of a nuclear power is always like playing chess with death, when it is known precisely when the game ends, which is like the day of the end of mankind."