Igor Girkin says Moscow should use tactical nuclear weapons

Former Russian Federal Security Service officer and prominent military war blogger Igor Girkin—also known as Igor Strelkov—stated in a recent interview that Moscow should use tactical nuclear weapons in its conflict with Ukraine.

Interestingly, though, Girkin stated that rather than using Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal on Ukraine, Moscow should use it against NATO member states.

Girkin’s comments were made at the end of an hour and twenty-minute-long interview with Russian businessman Andrei Kovalyov, during which he explained why such a measure was needed. 

"I believe that if we use nuclear weapons first, we will soon get a retaliatory strike," Girkin said, "I believe that we should use tactical nuclear weapons."

According to Girkin, Russia should strike NATO with nuclear weapons since striking Ukraine first would ultimately mean that the West would supply Ukraine with its own tactical nuclear weapons to strike at Russia. 

Girkin noted that if Russia nuked Ukraine, the country would have its own nuclear weapons "within a month” and would be authorized by its Western allies to use them against Russia in the same way Russia used them against Ukraine. 

“Everyone in the West will applaud that,” Girkin added sarcastically. But he wasn’t as glib about explaining the rationality behind his line of thinking. 

The former FSB agent concluded that he was less concerned about the morality of using nuclear weapons now since hitting Russian territory or even planning to hit Russian territory was tantamount to a crime. 

“To hit our territory,” Girkin told Kovalyov, “Russian territory from Ukrainian territory, with nuclear weapons, or even to plan it, is a crime."

Therefore, Girkin concluded, Russia should only use nuclear weapons in its conflict with Ukraine if it was going to use them to strike at NATO, which Girkin does believe should be done by the Kremlin. 

This convoluted line of reasoning is just another in a long line of self-victimization that seems to be plaguing Russia’s ultra-nationalist population and is another clear example of pro-Kremlin media attempting to control the war's narrative. 

This strategy of self-victimization has a long history in Russian media—take for example the trial surrounding the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 by Russia, a tragedy for which Girkin was found guilty of perpetrating in November 2022. 

“Pro-Kremlin media moans that the purpose of the trial is not to establish the true culprits,” said Euromaidan Press journalist Yuri Zoria, “this claim shows that while 298 people were murdered, there is only one victim in the eyes of the pro-Kremlin media– Russia."

A clip of Girkin’s interview was Tweeted out by Anton Gerashchenko, an Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and Founder of the Institute of the Future who criticized the “terrorist Girkin” for saying that nuclear weapons should be used against NATO countries. 

Rhetoric encouraging the use of nuclear weapons has been increasing on Russian state television since the disasters of Kharkiv and Kherson and experts James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International believes Vladimir Putin could choose to use his nuclear option. 

"I assess Russian nuclear use to be very unlikely in the short term,” Acton said, “but if things go badly for Russia, I believe it is a possibility.” 

For now, we will have to wait and see how the Kremlin responded to Girkins's comments. Gherkin has been highly critical of Putin’s disastrous war as of late and his comments about using nuclear weapons come on the heels of his public acknowledgment that Putin had been dealt a “strategic defeat” by Ukrainian forces.