Russia announced the start of tactical nuclear weapons exercises near Ukraine on Tuesday, claiming it was reacting to Western “threats,” as Ukrainian army claims some success around the Northeastern city of Kharkiv.
Russia on Tuesday announced the start of tactical nuclear weapons drills close to Ukraine, in what it said was a response to Western “threats.”
Throughout its two-year offensive on Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly talked up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and its readiness to deploy them if it senses an existential threat.
The West has accused President Vladimir Putin of irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the drills were taking place in its Southern Military District, which borders and includes parts of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed. It did not specify exactly where.
The drills are designed to test “the readiness of personnel and equipment of non-strategic nuclear weapons combat units to respond and to unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“Response to provocative statements”
It added they were a “response to provocative statements and threats by certain Western officials.”
Putin ordered the drills earlier this month after a series of Western statements on the Ukraine conflict drew scorn in Moscow.
Russian officials pointed to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron about NATO countries needing to not rule out deploying troops to Ukraine and British Foreign Minister David Cameron saying Kyiv had the right to fire Western missiles at Russian territory.
Russia’s Southern Military District is the command center for its offensive on Ukraine. It is headquartered in Rostov-on-Don, 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the border with Ukraine and also includes parts of the country Russia says it has annexed – the Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The Defense Ministry published footage showing trucks carrying missiles to a field where launch systems were prepared, and troops at an airfield readying a bomber to carry a nuclear warhead.
It said this was the “first stage” of the drills, which involved practising the loading of launch vehicles, driving to designated launch sites and loading planes with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles.
It did not indicate whether any test firings had taken place.
Tactical nuclear weapons, also known as non-strategic nuclear weapons, are designed for use on the battlefield and can be delivered via missiles.
Ukrainian successes
Ukrainian troops battling Russia in the northeast Kharkiv region are making “tangible” progress but the situation in other areas of the front line is difficult, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday.
Kyiv has been battling a fresh Russian assault on the region since May 10, when Moscow stormed the border, capturing several small settlements in its biggest advance in 18 months.
“In the Kharkiv region, our forces are destroying the occupier, the results are tangible,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
However, he warned that the situation on the eastern front near the cities of Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk and Kurakhove remained “extremely difficult at the moment.”
“Most of the battles are going on there now,” he said.
Army spokesman Nazar Voloshyn said Ukrainian troops had “managed to stabilize the situation” on the Kharkiv front, but that the situation was difficult and changing quickly.
Ukraine has rushed troops and resources to the northeastern region, ceding ground elsewhere including areas it had regained in its counteroffensive last year.
With AFP
