The General Staff of the Russian Army has begun preparations to carry out exercises “in the near future” with missile units of the Southern Military District, which includes nuclear weapons, according to the order issued by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
During these missile exercises, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced this Monday, “a set of measures will be carried out for the practical development of the problems of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.”
The reason for these maneuvers is “threats” from the West, the department said in a statement. This training aims to “maintain the readiness” of the Army to protect the country “in response to the provocative statements and threats made against Russia by certain Western officials,” the ministry added.
The exercise, whose date has not been specified, will involve the aviation, navy and forces of the Southern military district, that is, the troops whose barracks are closest to Ukraine and the Ukrainian regions that Russia considers its own and declared annexed in September 2022.
By the term “threats”, Russia refers to statements from the West that raise the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine.
Dimitri Peskov, press officer for the Russian president, explained this Monday that specifically these are the words of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, of “British representatives” and of “representatives of the United States Senate.”
“They have talked about the willingness and even the intention to send armed contingents to Ukraine, that is, to put NATO soldiers against the Russian army. This is a new turn in the escalation of tension. “It is unprecedented, and requires special attention and special measures,” the Kremlin spokesman added.
Moscow has also been bothered by the “dangerous statements” of the head of the British Foreign Office, David Cameron, about Ukraine’s right to use British weapons to attack Russian territory.
On the other hand, it is not the first time that Moscow has wielded the atomic weapon, in what appears to be an attempt to remind the West of the existence of the Russian nuclear arsenal.
Since the conflict with Ukraine began in February 2022 in Moscow, former President Dimitri Medvedev, today deputy head of the Security Council, has done so regularly. Putin has also hinted at it from time to time, although avoiding talking directly about nuclear weapons.
The United States and other Western countries have criticized these continued references to such destructive potential. “This rhetoric, as we have seen previously, is irresponsible and inappropriate for a nuclear power. And it is inconsistent with the way any nuclear power should speak publicly about the use of such weapons,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
In the summer of 2023, Russia deployed tactical nuclear weapons in the territory of Belarus, its closest ally and neighbor, like Russia, in the European Union.
Peskov has said that the use of nuclear weapons is a “strictly defensive” resource and that the reasons for Moscow to use them are detailed in its nuclear doctrine. This indicates that they will be used in case Russia is attacked with weapons of mass destruction or in case the aggression is carried out with conventional weapons but “threatens the very existence of the Russian State.”
Russia already carried out nuclear exercises last year. On October 26, 2023, the Federation Council (the Russian Senate) approved the revocation of the ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and shortly after it was announced that Vladimir Putin had supervised ballistic missile launches during military maneuvers intended to simulate a “nuclear attack” in response to a similar attack against Moscow.
During these exercises, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia, and another Sineva ballistic missile was fired from the Tula nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea.
