“It seems to me this is the first time Beijing has responded so clearly and forcefully,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, describing China’s reaction to Russian talk of using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
Zelensky was answering a question from Radio NV. Several European leaders, he said, had told him they recently raised the issue with Chinese officials, who made plain that Beijing opposes any use of nuclear weapons. “According to them, China responded very seriously, harshly and unequivocally to allegations in Russian media about the possible use of nuclear weapons,” he said.
The European leaders described the Chinese message as an ultimatum. “The Chinese side has stated in an ultimatum that there can be no discussion of the use of nuclear weapons,” Zelensky said, relaying their account.
Talks in Ankara
China came up in several conversations at the NATO summit in Ankara. Zelensky said he discussed it with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines, alongside the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He kept the substance private. “President Trump and I discussed China, its role in this war, its participation or potential participation, and its capabilities,” he said. “But, with all due respect, I would like the details of this particular conversation to remain between me and the US president.”
Several European leaders also raised the question of whether China could help end the war, according to Zelensky.
The Russian rhetoric behind it
His comments followed a run of calls in Russia for nuclear escalation. In early June, Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said a nuclear apocalypse is “realistically possible.” He added that Russia must stay prepared: “That is precisely why our country has a triad of strategic nuclear forces, and it is maintained in proper condition.” Medvedev has issued a series of nuclear warnings since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and has accused Western countries of raising the risk of direct confrontation by arming Kyiv.
Steven Pifer, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, told Kyiv Post earlier that Medvedev’s talk should not be read as authoritative Kremlin policy. “Former President Medvedev says a lot of things that are, quite frankly, borderline crazy or just outright crazy,” Pifer said. He added that Moscow often uses nuclear threats to intimidate and to weaken Western and European support for Ukraine.
On June 9, a member of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly publicly proposed using nuclear weapons against Ukraine, arguing that Russia’s so-called “special military operation” was not going as planned. On June 21, pro-Kremlin oligarch Konstantin Malofeev urged nuclear strikes on “terminals, fiber-optic cables in the Atlantic, and with shrapnel missiles in space” to disrupt Ukraine’s command-and-control capabilities.
