“”Don’t wait for Russia’s nuclear strikes, and then say, ‘Oh, since you did this, take that from us!’ Reconsider the way you apply pressure. This is what NATO should do— reconsider the order in which it applies pressure [on Russia].”
It is also worth noting Ukrainian word “удар,” which Zelensky used in the address, can mean a literal “strike,” but also has figurative meanings, such as a “hit” or a “blow,” a nuance that perhaps has gotten lost in the the simultaneous interpreting and the subsequent reporting.
The comments were promptly taken out of context and seized upon by Russian officials who have for a long time lambasted the West for its military support for Kyiv’s forces.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram that it showed that the West was “fueling a nuclear war” and denounced Zelensky as a “monster” who is able to “destroy the planet.”
Peskov also weighed in, saying the the U.S. the U.K. and the EU “should pay attention” to Zelensky’s comment as they were “de facto” responsible for the statements from Kyiv.
However, Zelensky’s spokesman Serhii Nykyforov, stepped in to clarify the president’s remarks, saying he was referring to preventive sanctions that should have been applied to Russia before its full-scale invasion.
He said in a Facebook post that the “nuclear hysteria” had “gone a little too far,” and that Zelensky had been speaking about action “in the period before February 24.”
Comment: So, the answer is NO. pl
Fact Check: Did President Zelensky Call on NATO to Start Nuclear War? (newsweek.com)
Zelenskiy’s answer was the same before Russia launched the invasion. We should have implemented massive sanctions preemptively before Putin crossed the border.
I am reminded of the media fluff over Putin calling Trump “brilliant” during the 2016 campaign.
Another lost in translation moment, since this word “brilliant” is tossed around to describe even a good plate of spaghetti among our friends across the pond. While in the colonies it refers almost exclusively a to a high IQ person or thought and/or the quality of a premium diamond.
Who did the English translation – a UK or US tranlating what Putin had said in Russian?
As I recall, when Putin explained he thought Trump was a “shiny object, a novelty”. Hence a UK translation would have used the word “brilliant”. While Trump and the media fluffed this up as Putin love affair compliment to Trump’s intellectual capacity.
However, for 48 hours this nuclear weapon jostling from both Zelenskyy and Biden held us all in terror caught between two cosplaying world leaders. Also sounds like there was a lot os verbal back-peddling going on between two men, who should not be presently commanding center stage.
The nuclear strike business should be left in the mouth of Joe Armageddon Biden where it can be quickly explained and corrected by the press.
Whitewall,
Putin, Lavrov and others in Moscow have been threatening the West with nuclear strikes since well before the invasion.
Kerry and Obama threatened Syria with “small tactical nuclear strikes”, back in Barry’s Red Line days. Also a surrogate war with Russia.
Now do we play, who threatened whom first?
My college freshman class motto: Stay alive til ’65 — our college graduation year – 1965 , not our expected dotage and qualification for social security age. Just four years hence at that time.
Such was the threat of nuclear annihilation in our young lives – it felt real every day. We thought our generation had solved this problem however after the end of the Cuban missile crisis allowed us to breath again, and nuclear strikes were taken off the table for Viet-nam.
We had decades where MAD had put and end to the madness. Then Biden recklessly opens his yap. And it is Armageddon deja all over again. Time to dust off those old copies of “On the Beach”.