Russia plans to hold exercises simulating the use of nuclear weapons on the battlefield, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that Tensions with the West are deepening.
The exercises are in response to “provocative statements and threats by certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
It was the first time Russia publicly announced tactical nuclear weapons exercises, although its strategic nuclear forces conduct exercises periodically. Tactical nuclear weapons include aerial bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are intended for use on the battlefield. They are less powerful than the enormous warheads that arm ICBMs and are intended to destroy entire cities.
The Russian announcement appeared to be a warning to Ukraine’s Western allies not to become more deeply involved in the more than two-year war. Some of Ukraine’s Western partners have previously expressed concern about stoking the conflict amid fears it could spread beyond Ukraine and turn into a war between NATO and Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron repeated last week that he does not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kiev forces will be able to use long-range British weapons to attack targets. within Russia. Some other NATO countries that supply weapons to kyiv have opposed that possibility.
The Kremlin called those comments dangerous and increased tension between Russia and NATO. The war has already put a significant strain on relations between Moscow and the West.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Macron’s recent statement and other comments by British and American officials had prompted the nuclear exercises.
“It’s a new round of escalation,” Peskov said, referring to what the Kremlin considered provocative statements. “This is unprecedented and requires special attention and measures,” Peskov told reporters.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said in his typically aggressive style that Macron and Cameron’s comments risked pushing the nuclear-armed world toward a “global catastrophe.”
This is not the first time that Europe’s military support for Ukraine has irritated Russian authorities and provoked nuclear saber-rattling. In March last year, after the UK government’s decision to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium, Putin announced that he intended to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.
The ministry said the exercise aims to “increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfill combat tasks” and will be carried out on Putin’s order. Missile units of the Southern Military District will participate in the maneuvers along with the air force and navy, he said.
Western officials have blamed Russia for threatening a broader war through provocative acts. NATO countries said last week they are deeply concerned about a campaign of hybrid activities on the military alliance’s territory, accusing Russia of being behind them and saying they pose a threat to their security.
Peskov dismissed those claims as “new unfounded accusations directed at our country.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones attacked two vehicles on Monday in Russia’s Belgorod region, killing six people and wounding 35 others, including two children, local authorities said, in an area frequently attacked by Kiev forces in recent years. months.
One of the vehicles was a minibus carrying agricultural workers, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
No further details were immediately available and it was not possible to independently confirm the report from the border region.
While Ukraine’s military is largely immobilized on the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line due to troop and ammunition shortages after more than two years of fighting, it has used its long-range firepower to attack targets deep in Russia. The apparent goal is to disrupt Russia’s war logistics system by attacking oil refineries and depots, and unnerve Russian border regions.
The Belgorod region was a staging ground for the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It has been under regular attack since Russian forces withdrew there from northeastern Ukraine early in the war following a counteroffensive by kyiv. .
In what has largely been a war of attrition, Russia has also relied heavily on long-range missiles, artillery and drones to inflict damage on Ukraine.
Late last year, Belgorod officials said 25 people were killed, including five children, and more than 100 wounded in a Ukrainian attack, and regular rocket and drone attacks have continued since. The area can be reached with relatively simple and mobile weapons, such as multiple rocket launchers from the forests on the Ukrainian side.
Russian authorities said in March they planned to evacuate about 9,000 children from the area due to continued shelling, after Putin said he wanted to create a buffer zone to help protect border regions.
Additionally, Kremlin forces continued to bomb Ukraine’s power grid, with a nighttime Russian drone attack targeting energy infrastructure in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine. Several cities and towns in the region, including Sumy, were left without electricity, regional authorities said.
Russia attacked Ukrainian targets with 13 Shahed drones overnight, 12 of which were intercepted in the Sumy region, the Ukrainian air force said.