Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered navy drills simulating the usage of tactical nuclear weapons, his Protection Ministry introduced Monday, in an obvious retaliation to feedback made by Western leaders about Moscow’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
The Protection Ministry assertion saying the workout routines mentioned they got here “in response to provocative statements and threats of sure Western officers concerning the Russian Federation.” The announcement follows a livid response from the Kremlin final week to current remarks from British and French politicians.
Though Russia’s strategic nuclear forces routinely conduct workout routines, Moscow has not beforehand publicly introduced drills for the usage of tactical nukes. Tactical nuclear weapons sometimes characteristic much less highly effective warheads than these arming strategic missiles and are designed for battlefield use fairly than the destruction of city-sized targets.
The drills will contain the follow of the “preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the Protection Ministry mentioned, including that missile formations of the Southern Navy District and the navy would participate.
The assertion didn’t identify which officers had made the “provocative statements” which had supposedly induced Putin to order the workout routines, however the announcement adopted the Kremlin’s condemnation final week of remarks made by French President Emmanuel Macron and David Cameron, the previous U.Okay. prime minister and present overseas secretary.
In an interview revealed final Thursday, Macron mentioned that he wouldn’t rule out the opportunity of sending floor troops to Ukraine, reiterating a place he’d publicly taken earlier within the yr which obtained vital blowback each in France and internationally. On the identical day, Cameron mentioned throughout a go to to Kyiv that Ukraine has the precise to make use of long-range British weapons to strike targets on Russian territory.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday known as Macron’s remark “a vital and really harmful assertion” and equally branded Cameron’s phrases “one other very harmful assertion.” “This can be a direct escalation of tensions across the Ukrainian battle, which probably could threaten European safety, your complete European safety structure,” Peskov mentioned, in line with the Related Press.
Whereas it’s uncommon for nuclear powers to publicly announce that weapons drills have been organized in response to particular provocations, Putin has beforehand turned to nuclear rhetoric through the conflict in Ukraine. In March 2023, he mentioned he deliberate to station tactical weapons in Belarus following Britain’s resolution to produce Kyiv with armor-piercing shells made with depleted uranium.
He additionally warned in March this yr {that a} direct battle between NATO and Russia would put the world one step away from World Battle III. Putin nonetheless mentioned “hardly anybody” desires such a state of affairs.
