BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons, and the country’s nuclear forces are expected to hold a large-scale exercise called Grom soon. This leaves the United States and its allies with the critical task of knowing for sure whether Russia intends to make a serious move or whether it is just an exercise.
Russia has traditionally held large-scale nuclear exercises around this time of year, and Western experts expect this year to begin in the coming days. Senior US officials said the exercises were likely to include test fires of various ballistic missiles.
But this year, with Mr Putin publicly voicing the use of nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory against the background of the protracted fighting in Ukraine, some Western officials have speculated that Russia is deliberately threatening itself through exercises. trying to blind our intentions.
A Western official told Reuters: “That’s why Russia doesn’t want to dare to be particularly radical in terms of carrying out nuclear exercises, because by doing that, we, because of the additional burden of making sure that what you see on work or what’s really going on is normal exercise or something else.”
Nevertheless, the official said he had “high confidence” in the West’s ability to make such decisions.
At a press conference in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured NATO that the annual Russian exercise would be closely monitored, as it has been for decades.
Kirby, strategic public relations coordinator at the US National Security Council (NSC), said Russia’s strategic nuclear operations force would be used on a large scale in Grom, including launching live missiles, but that they were nothing more than “routine “. point out. “Russia probably believes that this exercise will improve its power projection capabilities, especially in light of recent events. We know,” he said, adding that the United States would “monitor” the situation.
A senior Pentagon official said he expected the Russian exercises to coincide with NATO’s planned nuclear deterrence exercise, Steadfast Noon, which began next week. It is extremely irresponsible to refer to nuclear weapons and decide to hold this exercise. It is also irresponsibly threatening the United States and its allies by brandishing nuclear weapons.”
So far, there is no evidence that Mr Putin is preparing for a concrete nuclear strike. But over the past month, the rhetoric about nuclear weapons coming from Russia has grown louder as Ukraine’s counterattack has worked.
Most recently, Putin unilaterally announced the annexation of four Ukrainian provinces and threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend “Russian territories.” A senior NATO official, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that NATO would “respond physically” to a nuclear attack by Russia.
US Defense Secretary Austin said after a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Wednesday that he had seen “no signs or alarms” prompting a change in US nuclear posture.
The last time Russia conducted a large-scale nuclear force exercise was in February this year, just before it invaded Ukraine. At the time, it was believed that this was intended to stop Western support for Ukraine.
The Western official also said that the exercises in Russia are meant to test “how much the political leadership has the ability to control and give orders to its nuclear forces, and whether they will obey those orders.” Please explain.
According to the official, Russia is expected to release various scenes from the exercise and use them effectively to scare foreign countries. “They are going to be sending messages that touch on the use of nuclear weapons during the exercises, so that they can use the exercises to gain a strategic communication advantage,” he said.
NATO’s nuclear deterrence exercises were scheduled before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have been held at this time every year for more than a decade. Fourteen countries will participate, and fighters capable of carrying nuclear weapons and the US B-52 strategic bomber will also be deployed. No live ammunition is used.
The Pentagon official said, “We will continue our normal activities to maintain our (nuclear) deterrence, but we have no intention of sending a special message. Threatening us with nuclear weapons is reckless and irresponsible. Russia could choose play that game, but we would never do that.”
(Reporter by Phil Stewart)
