Russia could have long ago used tactical nuclear weaponry to achieve victory against Ukraine, but it has always sought to minimize collateral damage, Leonid Slutsky, the head of Russia’s Liberal-Democratic Party (LDPR), has said. 

The senior MP, who chairs the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, made the remarks in an interview with conservative American journalist and podcaster Tucker Carlson that aired on Saturday. Slutsky said Moscow would only opt for nuclear weaponry against Kiev if its Western sponsors supplied Ukraine with weapons of mass destruction. The politician expressed hope that the situation would not deteriorate to that point. 

In any other scenario, use of nuclear weaponry against Ukraine would not fit Moscow’s approach and vision, the MP stated. 

“We could have used them long ago and achieved victory, but we always rely on common sense and the principle of minimizing civilian casualties. Using such weapons as an instrument of terror, as was the case in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, if we recall World War II, is alien to us,” Slutsky stated.

Moscow could also have begun hitting Ukraine without any regard for collateral damage and civilian casualties, but still hopes that Kiev and its Western backers will show some “common sense” and come to the “position of peace, not war,” the politician believes.

“But for now they take an entirely different position, completely devoid of common sense,” Slutsky said. 

Russia has so far avoided attacking bridges across the Dnieper River, the destruction of which would have deprived the Ukrainian military in Donbass of logistics, the politician explained. He said it has also refrained from striking the key airport of Borispol outside Kiev, which has been used to funnel weaponry from the West. Either option, however, would have drastically worsened the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and harmed civilians, according to Slutsky.