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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
Putin orders tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to Western | |
‘threats’ | |
By Anna Chernova and Christian Edwards, CNN | |
Updated: | |
8:44 PM EDT, Tue May 7, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
President Vladimir Putin has ordered to rehearse deploying tactical | |
nuclear weapons, as part of military drills to respond to what he | |
called “threats” by the West. | |
Since in 2022, Putin has repeatedly made veiled threats to use tactical | |
nuclear weapons against the West, but Monday marked the first time | |
Russia has publicly announced drills. | |
“During the exercises, a set of measures will be carried out to | |
practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear | |
weapons,” Russia’s defense ministry said. | |
Non-strategic, or “tactical,” nuclear weapons can be used in | |
battlefield situations, carrying less power than strategic nuclear | |
weapons, which have the potential to level entire cities. | |
Russia’s defense ministry said the drills were ordered after | |
“provocative statements and threats” by Western officials against | |
Russia, which Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said had reached | |
“unprecedented levels.” | |
French President Emmanuel Macron last week reaffirmed that he would not | |
rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, as he warned of the risks | |
Russia poses to European security and other countries near its borders. | |
“I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is | |
not ruling anything out,” Macron told magazine. “I have a clear | |
strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine. If Russia wins in | |
Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that | |
Russia will stop there?” | |
And during a visit to Ukraine last week, British Foreign Secretary | |
David Cameron said that Ukraine could use British-supplied weapons to | |
strike targets inside Russia. | |
“In terms of what the Ukrainians do, in our view it is their decision | |
about how to use these weapons. They are defending their country. They | |
were illegally invaded by Putin and they must take those steps,” | |
Cameron told reporters after the United Kingdom pledged continued | |
financial and military support for Ukraine. | |
The drills announcement also comes shortly after the United States last | |
month passed a long-delayed aid package for Kyiv, which will allow | |
desperately needed military equipment and ammunition to flow to Ukraine | |
as it tries to shore up its frontlines in the face of a renewed Russian | |
onslaughts. | |
Russian forces last month made further in at least three locations | |
along Ukraine’s eastern front, as Moscow tries to press home its | |
manpower and ammunition advantage before the bulk of the US aid arrives | |
in Ukraine. | |
Russia has tended to raise the nuclear specter when its invasion of | |
Ukraine has hit obstacles or when other countries make new pledges of | |
support for Ukraine. After Ukraine liberated large swathes of its | |
territory in late 2022, Putin conceded that the war is “going to take | |
a while” and of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war. | |
In February last year, Putin announced that Russia would suspend | |
participation in the , a key nuclear arms reduction agreement with the | |
United States, the last remaining pact that regulates the world’s two | |
largest nuclear arsenals. Putin said Russia would not be the first to | |
test nuclear weapons, but would do so in the event of a US test. | |
After Macron said in February that could not be ruled out, Putin | |
“this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, | |
and therefore the destruction of civilization.” | |
US President Joe Biden and State Department officials have previously | |
that Putin could deploy a nuclear weapon, but continue to take the | |
threats seriously. | |
In response to Russia’s latest announcement, the US said it had seen | |
no change in Russia’s “strategic force posture” following | |
Moscow’s announcement that it would begin tactical nuclear weapons | |
drills, according to Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder. | |
Ryder said Russia’s announcement is “completely inappropriate,” | |
and “an example of the kind of irresponsible rhetoric that we’ve | |
seen from Russia in the past.” | |
In late 2022, the US began “preparing rigorously” for Russia with a | |
tactical nuclear weapon, in what would have been the first nuclear | |
attack in war since the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and | |
Nagasaki nearly 80 years before, two senior administration officials | |
previously told CNN. | |
In Monday’s announcement, Russia’s defense ministry said the | |
military’s General Staff had begun preparations for conducting | |
“exercises in the near future with missile formations of the Southern | |
Military District involving aviation as well as naval forces.” | |
On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry of Belarus said on Telegram it had | |
held a “surprise inspection” of non-strategic nuclear arms | |
carriers. President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the inspection to | |
“test the entire range of activities from planning, preparation, and | |
use of strikes with tactical nuclear weapons,” according to | |
Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin. | |
Khrenin also said that “a division of the Iskander | |
operational-tactical complex and a squadron of Su-25 aircraft” have | |
been transferred into positions for the drills. | |
Belarus does not possess its own nuclear weapons. Russia and Belarus | |
signed an agreement to place Moscow’s non-strategic nuclear weapons | |
in Belarus in May of 2023 and the transfer was completed by October of | |
that year. Lukashenko has previously said that the nuclear weapons | |
stationed in Belarus are for “defensive purposes” only and could be | |
used to “respond to aggression.” | |
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Mariya Knight contributed reporting. | |
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