Russia, Belarus launch second stage of joint tactical nuclear weapons drills | EUROtoday

Issued on: 11/06/2024 – 12:30

2 min

In saying the nuclear maneuvers final month, the Russian Defense Ministry mentioned they have been in response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation.”

The Kremlin has expressed outrage after French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned he does not exclude deploying troops to Ukraine, and the U.S. and another NATO allies allowed Kyiv to make use of the weapons provided by them for putting targets on the Russian territory.

During the second stage of the drills that started Tuesday, Russian and Belarusian troops will endure joint coaching in non-strategic nuclear weapons utilized in fight, the Defense Ministry mentioned. It famous that the train is aimed toward sustaining readiness of personnel and tools to make sure “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the alliance of Russia and Belarus.

The first stage of the train final month envisaged a preparation for nuclear missions and deployment for launches, based on the Defense Ministry. The Russian army had educated individually in the course of the preliminary stage of the maneuvers earlier than joint drills with Belarusian forces.

Last 12 months, Russia moved a few of its tactical nuclear weapons into neighboring Belarus, which additionally borders Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has relied on shut ties with Russia and supplied his nation as a staging floor for the warfare in Ukraine.

Read extra‘We will be in danger if Russia wins’: Security issues drive Poland’s help for Ukraine

Tactical nuclear weapons embody air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant to be used on a battlefield. Usually they’re much less highly effective than the strategic weapons — large warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles and are supposed to obliterate total cities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has famous, nonetheless, that even Russia’s battlefield nuclear weapons are way more highly effective than the 2 atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan on the finish of World War II.

Last week, Putin declared that the West is fallacious to proceed from the idea that Russia won’t ever use its atomic arsenal.

Putin pointed on the nation’s nuclear doctrine that envisages the usage of nuclear weapons in case of a risk to its sovereignty and territorial integrity. At the identical time, he mentioned he sees no present risk to Russia’s sovereignty that will warrant the usage of nuclear weapons and emphasised that Moscow does not want them to defeat Ukraine.

The Russian chief has repeatedly reminded the West concerning the nation’s nuclear would possibly since he despatched troops into Ukraine in 2022.

(AP)