At the battle of Stirling Bridge, 11 September 1297, the movie Braveheart has William Wallace provoking the English to battle, saying "Here are Scotland's terms. Lower your flags, and march straight back to England, stopping at every home to beg forgiveness for 100 years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today. ... Before we let you leave, your commander must cross that field, present himself before this army, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own ass."

Putin's Nuclear Crisis - September 2022

On 08 September 2022, the Biological Weapons Convention Article V Formal Consultative Meeting, called by Russia, ended in Geneva. The United States delegation, led by Special Representative Kenneth D. Ward, "effectively exposed Russia's disinformation tactics and dispelled Russia's spurious allegations seeking to malign peaceful U.S. cooperation with Ukraine".

President Joe Biden again warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against using weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Ukraine. "Don't. Don't. Don't. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II," he said 17 September 2022 in an interview with CBS News scheduled to air Sunday night. Biden would not comment specifically on a U.S. response if Russia were to use chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine. "They'll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been," he added. "And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur."

Putin's spokesman on 17 September 2022 advised Washington of Moscow's nuclear "red line". Russia had on numerous previous occasions stated that it does not contemplate the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Dmitry Peskov gave reporters this short answer, "Read the doctrine. Everything is written there". The Russian nuclear doctrine allows the country to use nukes in two conditions. First, when "Russia or its ally [is under attack] with the use of mass destruction weapons," and second, "when the very existence of the state is under threat." In the meantime, Russian nuclear forces remain on high alert.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made nuclear threats against Ukraine in his speech to the nation on 21 September 2022, where he announced partial mobilization and status referendums in the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye. What Putin actually said was that Kiev and its Western sponsors had "resorted to nuclear blackmail," and that Moscow would not hesitate to respond if its security interests were threatened. Putin said the West is trying to weaken and destroy Russia. "In its aggressive anti-Russian policy, the West has crossed every line," he said. "This is not a bluff. And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them.

"Washington, London and Brussels are openly encouraging Kiev to move the hostilities to our territory. They openly say that Russia must be defeated on the battlefield by any means, and subsequently deprived of political, economic, cultural and any other sovereignty and ransacked.

"They have even resorted to the nuclear blackmail. I am referring not only to the Western-encouraged shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which poses a threat of a nuclear disaster, but also to the statements made by some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO countries on the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction - nuclear weapons - against Russia.

"I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff.

"The citizens of Russia can rest assured that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be defended - I repeat - by all the systems available to us. Those who are using nuclear blackmail against us should know that the wind rose can turn around. It is our historical tradition and the destiny of our nation to stop those who are keen on global domination and threaten to split up and enslave our Motherland. Rest assured that we will do it this time as well."

Kremlin-designated leaders of Ukrainian regions that are partially controlled by Russian forces announced on 20 September 2022 that they will hold so-called referenda on joining Russia from September 23-27, even as fighting raged. Putin could use the referenda to turn his invasion on its head, claiming that "Russian" territory is now under attack and partly occupied by Ukrainian forces. "Foreign troops crossing Russia's borders - even if the border has just moved - will be used by Putin to justify...moving toward mobilization, targeting Ukrainian sites it had previously avoided, [and] making its nuclear threats less abstract," Aleksandr Baunov, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote.

After Putin spoke, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he is calling an urgent meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in New York, following what he characterized as a "major escalation" by the Russian leader. "By the threat of using nuclear weapons, he is trying to intimidate Ukraine and all countries that support Ukraine," Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. "But he will fail. He has failed, and he will fail again."

Borrell said the international community cannot accept such a threat, and that leaders at the U.N. this week must react. As for the European Union, he said the bloc will not be intimidated and will continue its military and economic support to Kyiv. Borrell said the bloc would also consider new sanctions on Russia, especially if it goes ahead with planned referenda in occupied parts of Ukraine.

Kremlin Spokesperson confirmed that Russia would respond right back to any aggression but affirms that his country is not willing to delve into a scene of nuclear escalation. Dmitry Peskov said that Russia does not want to develop the theme of nuclear escalation and is urging everyone to behave responsibly. "We do not want to develop this theme, we are still urging everyone to behave responsibly," Peskov said, adding that only those acting irresponsibly had been talking about nuclear escalation. Expressing the way Russia would view the strikes on the new territories now pertaining to and protected by it, Peskov assured that Russia would respond right back but also affirmed that his country is not willing to delve into a scene of nuclear escalation.

The U.S. has warned Russia of "catastrophic consequences" if it launches a nuclear attack on Ukraine, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said 25 September 2022. Sullivan, speaking on ABC's "This Week" show, said U.S. officials have told Russian officials privately that Biden "will respond decisively" if Russian President Vladimir Putin orders a nuclear strike but did not say how the U.S. would respond. Sullivan said the U.S. would "not engage in a game of rhetorical tit-for-tat" with Russia.

But Sullivan, in a separate interview, told NBC's "Meet the Press" show that "Russia understands very well what the United States would do in response to the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine because we have spelled it out for them."

Nuclear Threat Initiative stated "<i>NATO and the West must continue to respond with steady determination and resolve to push back on reckless Russian threats. They must make clear that a measured but forceful response will follow should Russia carry out its nuclear threat. Russian nuclear escalation will significantly expand the confrontation with Ukraine and the West while diminishing prospects for a Russian military, diplomatic, economic or political result that Russia and others can live with in the longer term. Nuclear use would break the nearly eighty-year taboo that Russia itself did much to support, without any credible reason to invoke the exceptional circumstance of an existential threat; Russia did not and does not face such a threat even with its war on Ukrainian sovereignty. Nuclear use would be an acknowledgement of Russia's military and strategic failure and would exacerbate the plight of long-term losers from the conflict, including Russia.</i>"

In an interview aired Sunday on CBS News's "Face the Nation" show, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine "could be a reality. He wants to scare the whole world. These are the first steps of his nuclear blackmail. I don't think he's bluffing." But Zelenskyy added, "I think the world is deterring it and containing this threat. We need to keep putting pressure on him and not allow him to continue."

On September 26, 2022 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has made it clear publicly and privately to Russia to "stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons" in the Ukraine conflict following Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement that he would use any means to defend Russia. "It's very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific, and we've made that very clear," Blinken told CBS News's "60 Minutes" show. Blinken said using nuclear weapons "would have catastrophic effects for, of course, the country using them, but for many others as well."

Dmitri Vitalyevich Trenin is a "former" colonel of Russian military intelligence. Trenin was director of the Carnegie Moscow Center from 2008 to early 2022. He is a member of Russia’s Foreign and Defence Policy Council. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ended its affiliation with Dmitri Trenin in early 2022.

Trenin said 26 September 2022 : "the only thing that can stop the United States in this situation is fear - its own fear of the next step.... the American strategy of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia is based on the belief that Russia will not use nuclear weapons: either it will be afraid, or it will consider that the destruction of civilization is still too high a price for maintaining its position. And here, in my opinion, lies a potential fatal miscalculation for all of humanity, because Putin’s phrase from 2018 that “we do n’t need a world without Russia ” somehow stuck with me....

"Our Doctrine says that nuclear weapons can be used if there is a threat to the existence of the state. Not "some projectile will fly into Russian territory", but "a threat to the existence of the state." It is the duty of the Supreme Commander to evaluate and decide whether any action of the enemy poses a threat to the existence of the state.

" ... a strike on the territory of Ukraine, in general, will not stop anyone, a strike on the territory of Europe will not be considered as critically important, as critically dangerous. A strike on the territory of the United States is another matter....

"For us, this is an existential question, because we are talking not only about the fate of Ukraine, but (which is much more important for us) about the fate of Russia, and in the most fundamental sense of the word. For the United States, it's more of a matter of political prestige, a matter of leadership, a matter of position in the world system.

“I think the feeling of fear has disappeared. Generally speaking, the world is based on fear, nothing else. So if fear disappears, the world is in danger....

"when there is a superpower on the one hand, and the remnants of the former superpower on the other, from the point of view of the United States, there can be no question of any, even nominal, equality."