{"id":55642,"date":"2024-05-21T20:07:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T20:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/21\/russia-starts-tactical-nuclear-drills-in-a-warning-to-ukraines-allies\/"},"modified":"2024-05-21T20:07:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T20:07:04","slug":"russia-starts-tactical-nuclear-drills-in-a-warning-to-ukraines-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/21\/russia-starts-tactical-nuclear-drills-in-a-warning-to-ukraines-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Starts Tactical Nuclear Drills, in a Warning to Ukraine\u2019s Allies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/21\/multimedia\/21russia-nuke-drills-pzkm\/21russia-nuke-drills-pzkm-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Russia Starts Tactical Nuclear Drills, in a Warning to Ukraine\u2019s Allies\" title=\"Russia Starts Tactical Nuclear Drills, in a Warning to Ukraine\u2019s Allies\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia sent a pointed reminder on Tuesday that it could use battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine, releasing video of its forces beginning exercises to practice their use, two weeks after <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/06\/world\/europe\/russia-tactical-nuclear-weapons-drills.html\" title=\"\">President Vladimir V. Putin ordered<\/a> the provocative drills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Video released by the Russian Defense Ministry showed a caravan of military vehicles moving down a wooded road, as well as mobile Iskander missile systems \u2014 which can deliver conventional or nuclear explosives \u2014 getting into position to launch, with their warheads blurred out. The footage also showed a supersonic strategic bomber armed with missiles and an attack aircraft being prepared for takeoff.\u2020<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said the exercise, carried out near Ukraine, was aimed at preparing the force to use tactical nuclear weapons. The goal is to \u201cunconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response to provocative statements and threats of individual Western officials,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Upon announcing the drills earlier this month, the Kremlin suggested the move was a response to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/27\/world\/europe\/russia-nato-france-macron.html\" title=\"\">comments by President Emmanuel Macron of France<\/a>, who refused to rule out sending French troops to Ukraine, and David Cameron, Britain\u2019s top diplomat, who said <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/08\/world\/europe\/britain-russia-defense-attache-moscow.html\" title=\"\">Ukraine could use British weapons to strike inside Russia<\/a>.<\/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\">Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin\u2019s spokesman, at the time called their comments \u201cunprecedented\u201d and described them as a \u201ccompletely new round of escalation\u201d that merited a response by Moscow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The exercises were the clearest warning yet from Russia that it might use nuclear weapons in the course of its war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s transparently an effort at nuclear coercion,\u201d said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies. \u201cThey\u2019ve even blurred the warhead on the Iskander ballistic missiles, which seems unnecessary but theatrical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The possibility of the conflict going nuclear has been there from the start, with Moscow trying to use its nuclear arsenal to deter Western nations from aiding Kyiv. The day he launched his invasion more than two years ago, Mr. Putin warned nations considering intervening to help Ukraine that they would face \u201cconsequences such as you have never seen in your entire history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Unlike strategic nuclear weapons, launched from great distances and with the power to obliterate whole cities, tactical nuclear warheads are designed for battlefield use. They are made to be used against limited targets, often from relatively short distances, with yields low enough to limit the destruction to a certain area.<\/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\">The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday the first stage of the exercise had begun in the Southern Military District, which includes much of southern Russia, in addition to areas of Ukraine that Moscow now occupies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The drills come amid broader questions about whether Western nations should intervene more forcefully in the conflict to help the beleaguered Ukrainian military, which has struggled with shortages of ammunition and personnel, as well as delayed aid from its biggest backer, the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/21\/world\/europe\/ukraine-zelensky-interview.html\" title=\"\">interview with The New York Times<\/a> published on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called for NATO countries to become more directly involved in the war, particularly in helping shoot down Russian missiles. He also said he wanted to be able to use American weapons against Russian forces on Russian territory, which Washington has not allowed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Zelensky added that fears of nuclear escalation were overblown, saying that Mr. Putin \u201cmay be irrational, but he loves his own life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the drills, Russian forces practiced loading \u201cspecial\u201d warheads on the Iskander systems, which have a range of a few hundred miles, and moving them covertly into position for launch, the ministry said. The exercise also saw forces practice loading warheads onto aircraft.<\/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\">U.S. officials for years have been concerned about Russia\u2019s vast arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, but efforts to bring them under control through diplomacy have failed amid a broader fraying of Cold War-era arms-control pacts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russian state news also reported on Tuesday that a former general, Ivan Popov, who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/13\/world\/europe\/russia-generals-ukraine-turmoil.html\" title=\"\">spoke out against Moscow\u2019s military leadership<\/a> in a viral recording released by a Russian lawmaker last year, had been arrested on suspicion of fraud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">General Popov, the former commander of Russia\u2019s 58th Combined Arms Army, was taken into custody as part of a criminal case involving \u201cfraud on a particularly large scale,\u201d the Russian state news agency Tass reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He lashed out at the Russian military leadership last year after being removed from his command, saying that the country\u2019s top officer, Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, had \u201ctreacherously and vilely decapitated our army\u201d at a particularly sensitive moment for Russian forces. At the time, his unit had been holding off a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The recording emerged amid the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/12\/world\/europe\/sergei-surovikin-russian-general-missing.html\" title=\"\">upheaval<\/a> caused by a failed uprising by the mercenary chief Yevegeny V. Prigozhin.<\/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\">Sergei Buinovsky, a lawyer for General Popov, told Russian news outlets that his client denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russian authorities have also arrested top underlings of former Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu in recent weeks in an anticorruption drive. The Kremlin <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/19\/world\/europe\/belousov-russia-economy-defense-ministry.html\" title=\"\">brought in a new defense minister<\/a>, the economist Andrei R. Belousov, and moved Mr. Shoigu to run the Russian security council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those arrests were seen as a method to deter top Russian officials from pilfering the deluge of state funds flowing into the defense sector, and as a way to boost morale for the troops, who bristle at the idea of top officials getting rich as they fight in the trenches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the arrest of General Popov may have the opposite effect for the Russian troops. He was generally seen as popular among the rank and file, and a number of pro-war military bloggers came to his defense on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cGeneral Ivan Popov is not a thief,\u201d Alexander Sladkov, a war correspondent for Russian state media, wrote on Telegram. \u201cHe is a soldier.\u201d<\/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\/21\/world\/europe\/russia-tactical-nuclear-exercise.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia sent a pointed reminder on Tuesday that it could use battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine, releasing video of its forces beginning exercises to practice their use, two weeks after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the provocative drills. Video released by the Russian Defense Ministry showed a caravan of military vehicles moving down a wooded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55643,"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\/21\/multimedia\/21russia-nuke-drills-pzkm\/21russia-nuke-drills-pzkm-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7411,21448,3101,202,6462,45207,11626,4246],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55642"}],"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=55642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55644,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55642\/revisions\/55644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}