{"id":44079,"date":"2024-05-06T11:25:56","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T11:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/06\/russia-to-hold-drills-on-tactical-nuclear-weapons-in-new-tensions-with-west\/"},"modified":"2024-05-06T11:25:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T11:25:56","slug":"russia-to-hold-drills-on-tactical-nuclear-weapons-in-new-tensions-with-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/06\/russia-to-hold-drills-on-tactical-nuclear-weapons-in-new-tensions-with-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia to Hold Drills on Tactical Nuclear Weapons in New Tensions With West"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/06\/multimedia\/06russia-nukes-zmpv\/06russia-nukes-zmpv-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Russia to Hold Drills on Tactical Nuclear Weapons in New Tensions With West\" title=\"Russia to Hold Drills on Tactical Nuclear Weapons in New Tensions With West\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia said on Monday that it would hold military exercises with troops based near Ukraine to practice for the possible use of battlefield nuclear weapons, ratcheting up tensions with the West after two European leaders raised the prospect of more direct Western intervention in the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Such weapons, often referred to as \u201ctactical,\u201d are designed for battlefield use and have smaller warheads than the \u201cstrategic\u201d nuclear weapons meant to target cities. Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said that President Vladimir V. Putin had ordered an exercise for missile, aviation and naval personnel to \u201cincrease the readiness of nonstrategic nuclear forces to carry out combat missions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russian officials claimed the order was in response to comments from the West about the possibility of more direct Western involvement in the war in Ukraine. And it came at the start of a week of extensive publicity for the Russian leader, with his inauguration scheduled for Tuesday, followed on Thursday by the annual <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/05\/09\/world\/europe\/russia-victory-day-may-9.html\" title=\"\">Victory Day celebration<\/a>, which commemorates the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The announcement of the exercise was Russia\u2019s most explicit warning in its more than two-year-long invasion of Ukraine that it could use tactical nuclear weapons there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Western officials have long worried that Russia could deploy such weapons, especially if it faced serious setbacks on the battlefield. But Mr. Putin <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"http:\/\/en.kremlin.ru\/events\/president\/news\/73648\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">denied<\/a> as recently as March that he had ever considered it, even as he regularly reminds the world of Russia\u2019s vast nuclear arsenal as a way of keeping in check the West\u2019s military support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Defense Ministry said the exercise would be held \u201cto unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response to provocative statements and threats of individual Western officials against the Russian Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The exercise, the Defense Ministry said, would involve forces of the Southern Military District, an area that covers Russian-occupied Ukraine and part of Russia\u2019s border region with Ukraine. It said the exercise would take place \u201cin the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin\u2019s spokesman, said the Western \u201cthreats\u201d in question included a recent <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/europe\/2024\/05\/02\/emmanuel-macron-in-his-own-words-english\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">interview<\/a> with President Emmanuel Macron of France published by The Economist, in which the French leader repeated his <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/07\/world\/europe\/ukraine-france-macron-nato.html?searchResultPosition=3\" title=\"\">refusal to rule out sending ground troops<\/a> to Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Peskov also alluded to a comment made last week by David Cameron, Britain\u2019s top diplomat, in which he said that Ukraine was free to use British weapons to strike inside Russia \u2014 a departure from Western governments\u2019 typical policy of discouraging such strikes in order to avoid being drawn deeper into the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is a completely new round of escalation of tensions \u2014 it is unprecedented,\u201d Mr. Peskov told reporters on Monday. \u201cAnd, of course, it requires special attention and special measures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pavel Podvig, a scholar on Russian nuclear forces, said in an interview that Russia has conducted such exercises before, though it rarely made them public. This time, however, the aim is to send a loud message, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is a reaction to specific statements, a signal saying that Russia has nuclear weapons,\u201d Mr. Podvig said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Unlike strategic nuclear weapons, which are always in a state of combat readiness, nonstrategic ones are stored in warehouses away from the bombers, missiles, or ships that are supposed to deliver them, Mr. Podvig said. During the exercise, Russian army formations are likely to practice how they could be deployed, he said. But it would make little sense to use them in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Mr. Podvig added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis weapon system exists to send a signal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Putin has not made any public comments about the drills. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to be inaugurated to his fifth term as president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Ivan Nechepurenko<!-- --> contributed reporting from Batumi, Georgia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/06\/world\/europe\/russia-tactical-nuclear-weapons-drills.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia said on Monday that it would hold military exercises with troops based near Ukraine to practice for the possible use of battlefield nuclear weapons, ratcheting up tensions with the West after two European leaders raised the prospect of more direct Western intervention in the war. Such weapons, often referred to as \u201ctactical,\u201d are designed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/06\/multimedia\/06russia-nukes-zmpv\/06russia-nukes-zmpv-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21448,2948,3101,202,45207,571,4120,6501],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44081,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44079\/revisions\/44081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}