Fiona Hill on Putin Using Nuclear Weapons: 'Of Course He Would'

The former adviser to the National Security Council who testified in former President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial has looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and has no doubt the Russian leader would use nuclear weapons.

"Of course he would," Fiona Hill told Times Radio in an interview published Tuesday on YouTube. "And the thing is he has already rhetorically done it, right?

"He's put us in a position that we've never been before with the Soviet Union, Russia – even going back to the Cold War – when we knew that part of the military doctrine was to use nuclear weapons, and biological and chemical weapons as well, in extreme circumstances, in the context of an existential threat to the Soviet Union, which there isn't, right now, to Russia."

Hill compared Putin's actions to that of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who is holding nuclear weapons as leverage for sanctions relief.

"'Release me from sanctions or send me food or whatever' – this is the North Korean [tactic] – 'or I'm going to blow you up with a nuclear weapon,'" Hill said.

Putin has warned the world, "'if you don't back off or back down, I'm going to push the button,'" Hill continued.

Ultimately, it is a strategy that will arm the entire world with nuclear weapons and lead to mass proliferation, according to Hill.

"Putin's opening it up for everyone," she said. "So, what we really need to do here is have a full-on, full-court, diplomatic effort to push him back, and having everybody else say, 'look, this is unacceptable,' as well.

"Because Putin is making the world unsafe for everyone, not just for what he might do in Ukraine itself."

Hill said regime change in Russia is not only "unlikely," but even thinking about it right now might mean "an even stronger Putin."

"It's more likely that Putin will die in office," Hill concluded.

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